While microchipping for pet parents in Japan is voluntary, a new survey published on Nippon.com from Japan Trend Research, operated by Nexer, found that 55.9% of survey respondents said that they did not want to do so in the future. Meanwhile 17.6% said that they intended to have microchips implanted in their pets.
It comes as a new law in Japan will see it mandatory for breeders and pet stores in Japan to implant microchips in dogs and cats from June 2022. Current pet parents are also being asked to complete the procedure, but the majority of them are opposed to doing so.
Japan’s revised Act on Welfare and Management of Animals comes into effect in June 2022. It will become mandatory for dogs and cats sold by breeders or pet stores to have a microchip implanted that records the pet parent’s information. In addition to preventing the abandonment of pets, the chip is useful for finding lost pets following a natural disaster.
The survey showed that 76.3% of respondents stating that they were not aware of the new requirement to implant microchips in dogs and cats. Meanwhile, 24.5% of the 433 surveyed pet parents of a dog or cat (including those with multiple pets) said that they already had a microchip implanted in their pet.
For those who do not plan to microchip their pets, the reasons cited for not wanting to have a chip implanted included the following: “It is immoral to implant a chip in a living being” and “My pet is always inside and I’m also worried about some problem arising from implanting a foreign object in the body of my pet.”
Those who said they are unsure about whether to have a chip implanted or not included those who were concerned about the effect on the pet or were weighing up the cost.