Japan grappling with invasive raccoon population

Japan's invasive raccoon problem has worsened over the last decade despite efforts to eradicate the species. Raccoons are not native to Japan and arrived in the 1970s as pets.

Japan's raccoon infestation has gotten considerably worse over the last decade, multiple Japanese news sources are reporting.

Nearly 1,300 raccoons were captured during the 2022 fiscal year, said Tokyo's government. This is about five times the number that were captured 10 years ago, reported Kyodo News, a Japanese news agency. 

In 2013, the Japanese government reiterated the need to combat raccoons as an invasive species.  

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Raccoons are not native to Japan, but were brought to the country in the 1970s following the popularity of the 1977 anime "Rascal the Raccoon." 

The anime was based on the autobiographical novel "Rascal, A Memoir of a Better Era" by Sterling North. In the book, North recounts raising a baby raccoon, Rascal. 

In response to the show, people in Japan began importing raccoons to keep as pets.

At its peak, more than 1,500 raccoons were being imported to Japan each year, said Smithsonian Magazine.

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But while the Japanese government moved quickly to ban both the import of raccoons, and the practice of keeping them as pets, it was too little, too late. 

Raccoons are not easy pets, Jaime Arslan, owner of two rescue raccoons, wrote on her Instagram page for her raccoons Louie and Lucy. 

Raccoons, she said, "can be very destructive in a home" and need to be constantly entertained. Additionally, raccoons "can and will bite," either as aggression or as a form of play. 

Their care, too, is extremely expensive, as most veterinarians will not see a raccoon. 

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Many Japanese families learned these lessons the hard way, and simply released their pet raccoons into the wild after they became unmanageable for their homes. 

As raccoons have no natural predators in Japan, they were quickly able to establish a population, and are now found in each of the country's 47 prefectures, said Kyodo News. 

In addition to the damage to the environment, the raccoon invasion has also wreaked havoc on the country's agricultural industry, said Kyodo News.

In 2022, raccoons were blamed for causing nearly $3 million in damage to crops, they said.

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Combating the raccoons has proven to be extremely difficult due to their intelligent natures, said Kyodo News. 

Local efforts to trap the raccoons or to immediately contact officials upon seeing damage inflicted by a raccoon have "so far proved ineffective." 

"Our traps are sometimes broken as raccoons are also desperate to live. Only a fraction is actually caught, so we are unable to grasp their overall range," said an official from a municipality in western Tokyo to Kyodo News.

Japan is not the only country that is dealing with invasive raccoons. In Germany, raccoons were imported there in the 1930s for their fur. The animals were released into the wild, where, similarly to Japan, they were able to establish a population.

In 2023, there were multiple reports of raccoons entering German homes, making a mess, and stealing beer, said the magazine Food & Wine. And in 2019, a drunk raccoon visited a Christmas market in Erfurt, Germany.

The raccoon, who reportedly drank leftover mulled wine, was shot dead by a hunter, said German media. 

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