Animals in Japan

Animals in Japan, what animals live here?

Well one of the strangest is the Japanese Giant Salamander. If you think of typical animals in Japan we have the Shiba dog which you see everywhere. They are famous for being very intelligent.

Japan is also famous for monkeys, deer, bears, and wild boar. We also have many strange and interesting fish.

Japan boasts some amazing living fossils, animals that look like and haven`t changed much since around the time of the dinosaurs, millions of years ago. One example is the Frilled shark.

In her famous 1962 book, "Silent Spring," Rachel Carson wrote:

"The 'control of nature' is a phrase conceived in arrogance, born of the Neanderthal age of biology and philosophy, when it was supposed that nature exists for the convenience of man."

From animals in Japan to Facts about Japan

From animals in Japan to Japan Living (home)

Animals in Japan -- Native to Japan

Japanese macaques or snow monkeys are native to these isles. Japanese black bears, otters, minks, raccoon dogs, shrews, moles, mice and many native birds too.

I always look in the local rivers to see the crayfish, turtles,carp and water birds. Japan is famous for cranes and herons,but also has egrets, ducks and even hawks.

There are even river crabs and of course crabs at the ocean beaches.

We have pikas and dugongs and many species of bats. Some of the dugongs are threatened by an Amnerican military base in Okinawa.

How Animals vary by Region in Japan

As Japan is a very long country, the animals differ from region to region. The climate in Hokkaido and some of the other northern islands is vastly different from Kyushu and Okinawa, so the flora and fauna differ as well.

On the big island of Honshu, and on Shikoku and Kyushu, one can find the Japanese serow, a kind of goat-like antelope, and the Giant Flying Squirrel, Japanese bear, snow monkeys,wild boar,and the tanuki or raccoon dog.

In the south in Okinawa, one finds the Iriomote Wild Cat and the Amami Hare.

In Hokkaido you can find the Ezo brown bear, the famous Sakhalinred fox, the sable, and the striped squirrel. Hokkaido andespecially Kushiro is famous for their graceful white cranes,an icon of Japan.

Insects & Animals of Summer in Japan

There are many different types of cichada and they come out in the summer months to make their haunting call. Tiny frogs toodon`t want to be left out so they too call to each other from thewater of the ricefields here. As a group they can be so loudit is comical (until you live right next to one!) Then you can laugh or cry, your choice!

Japan is also famous for the stag beetle, the rhinoceros beetle and the Japanese beetle are famous or infamous depending on to whom you speak.