It’s a neighborhood watch with a difference. A clean-nosed crew, sniffing out trouble and keeping the streets safe for school kids: meet the pups of Tokyo’s real-life Paw Patrol.
They might not have the gadgets and gear of their beloved cartoon counterparts, but the dogs of the Wan-Wan (“bow-wow”) Patrol are firm favorites in Tokyo’s Karasuyama neighborhood.
Twelve-year-old Yurika Igarashi counts on seeing Sakura, a fluffy toy poodle, when she’s on her way home from school.
Photo: AFP
“Sometimes I’m scared when I’m coming home alone, but I feel okay when I’m walking with Wan-Wan Patrol,” she said, gently cradling Sakura on her lap.
Sakura is one of 150 pups who form the Wan-Wan Patrol, a program that enlists dogs and their owners to turn their daily walks into a neighborhood watch, monitoring children, looking out for residents and helping deter crime.
The Karasuyama program is one of the oldest such community initiatives in Japan and was founded by a local police officer.
Photo: AFP
“Individual owners walk whenever they can and have their dog wear the same scarf,” said Keiko Shimizu, the patrol’s current leader.
Clearly marked canines patrolling the streets means “we can help make the neighborhood less prone to crime,” she added.
Many of the dog owners are parents of current and former students of the local school, but others just participate in the community watch as residents.
Photo: AFP
On one recent morning, five pooches in Wan-Wan Patrol’s lime-green neckerchiefs wagged their tails as they accompanied children going to elementary school.
Pu, a 17-year-old shih tzu, is one of the oldest members of the patrol and can no longer walk by herself. But she proudly participates from the comfort of a doggy stroller pushed by her owner.
‘CAREFREE’ PLAY
“The program helps us get to know each other and become good neighbors, and I feel this place stays safe that way,” said Michiko Takeuchi, owner of poodle and Maltese mix Kojiro, and mother to a local schoolboy.
And the patrol isn’t just for show.
“We had a member who found an elderly person who had passed away alone,” patrol leader Shimizu said. “They realized by noticing a room light still on in the morning. We walk at around the same hours on the same route everyday, so it’s easier for us to notice if there is something unusual.”
Japan has a reputation as one of the world’s safest countries, with very low rates of violent crime.
But there are occasional tragedies, including a devastating accident last month east of Tokyo in which a drunk driver crashed his truck into a group of schoolchildren, killing two.
Jun Ameie, principal at the local Kyuden Elementary School, said the neighborhood watch helps reassure parents and children alike.
“Parents appreciate that many people in the neighborhood care and make sure the environments safe, especially these days when we hear a lot of reports about crimes involving children,” he said.
“I’m sure that children can play carefree outside of school and anywhere in the neighborhood, because they know many adults keep their eyes on their safety,” Ameie added.
For young Igarashi, the cuddly canines are a reliable source of comfort.
“Of course, it’s fun to walk with the dogs, but I also feel protected by them.”
Many people noticed the flood of pro-China propaganda across a number of venues in recent weeks that looks like a coordinated assault on US Taiwan policy. It does look like an effort intended to influence the US before the meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese dictator Xi Jinping (習近平) over the weekend. Jennifer Kavanagh’s piece in the New York Times in September appears to be the opening strike of the current campaign. She followed up last week in the Lowy Interpreter, blaming the US for causing the PRC to escalate in the Philippines and Taiwan, saying that as
US President Donald Trump may have hoped for an impromptu talk with his old friend Kim Jong-un during a recent trip to Asia, but analysts say the increasingly emboldened North Korean despot had few good reasons to join the photo-op. Trump sent repeated overtures to Kim during his barnstorming tour of Asia, saying he was “100 percent” open to a meeting and even bucking decades of US policy by conceding that North Korea was “sort of a nuclear power.” But Pyongyang kept mum on the invitation, instead firing off missiles and sending its foreign minister to Russia and Belarus, with whom it
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has a dystopian, radical and dangerous conception of itself. Few are aware of this very fundamental difference between how they view power and how the rest of the world does. Even those of us who have lived in China sometimes fall back into the trap of viewing it through the lens of the power relationships common throughout the rest of the world, instead of understanding the CCP as it conceives of itself. Broadly speaking, the concepts of the people, race, culture, civilization, nation, government and religion are separate, though often overlapping and intertwined. A government
Nov. 3 to Nov. 9 In 1925, 18-year-old Huang Chin-chuan (黃金川) penned the following words: “When will the day of women’s equal rights arrive, so that my talents won’t drift away in the eastern stream?” These were the closing lines to her poem “Female Student” (女學生), which expressed her unwillingness to be confined to traditional female roles and her desire to study and explore the world. Born to a wealthy family on Nov. 5, 1907, Huang was able to study in Japan — a rare privilege for women in her time — and even made a name for herself in the
RSS