The number of pets exceeds 18 million! Japan's pet market is booming

The Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) and the Global Agricultural Information Network (GAIN) recently released a report that details the various conditions in the Japanese pet market.

The Japanese pet food market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 3.1% from 2020 to 2025, and the overall price of pet food will continue to rise .

In the pet food sector alone, sales exceeded $3 billion in 2019, marking four consecutive years of growth. Dog food sales in Japan totaled $1.36 billion, while cat food sales totaled $1.59 billion.

Moreover, the sales of semi-moist pet food and wet pet food both showed a slight increase, indicating that Japanese pet food is shifting towards wet pet food and nutritional products for cats and dogs.

In addition to regular offline channels, the most popular retail channel for pet food is e-commerce sales in this category , which has also grown steadily due to the impact of the epidemic.

In addition to pet food, other pet-related peripheral products are also very popular, such as pet toys, pet clothes, etc. Relevant sellers may also pay attention to them.

Pet preferences of Japanese people

In 2020, the four most popular dog breeds in Japan were Poodles (13.1% of the total number of dogs), Chihuahuas ( 12.8%), Shiba Inus ( 11.8%), and Dachshunds (11.3%).

These breeds have been the top four most popular breeds since 2016. They are all considered small breeds, which tend to be easier to care for in highly urbanized environments than larger breeds.

In terms of cats, the majority ( 75.5%) were hybrids, followed by the American Shorthair (4.8% of cats) and the Scottish Fold (3.4%).

There are now more cats and dogs in Japan ( 18.13 million) than children 15 years or younger (15.3 million). This is partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of new pet owners has increased during this period. As of October 2020, there are 8.5 million dogs and 9.6 million cats in Japanese households.

Since 2017, the number of pet cats in Japan has been far higher than the number of pet dogs because they have lower breeding requirements than dogs .

In addition to the number, the life span of pets in Japan is relatively long! The life expectancy of dogs in Japan is 14.5 years, and the life expectancy of cats is about 15.5 years. This also means that Japanese consumers' demand for pet products is long-term and stable!

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Food peripherals