Originally Posted by Tadashi
They kill stray dogs in Japan. I've never seen a dog without its owner here.
My wife is from Hakone (a couple hours west of you, near Mt. Fuji). I don't remember seeing any roaming dogs around that area either. However, when I was on Okinawa there were benjo mutts (medium size, brown, non-descript dog, as is common on all the islands on that side of the Pacific), all over the place, but they never chase. The only two times I ever got chased on Oki were by somebody's pets. One was tied and still came after me, but the owner was right there and immediately corrected the dog. The other was before daylight one morning, and that one only chased as far as the width of his front yard, (a big yard over there is tiny by American standards).