Japan's Pet Care Industry Surges as Pets Outnumber Children by Millions

Japan is undergoing a quiet but profound demographic shift. Pets now outnumber children under the age of 15 by more than 2 million, and the country's pet care market is expanding rapidly in response. According to market intelligence firm Euromonitor, the sector was valued at 880 billion yen (approximately $5.4 billion) in 2025, a significant rise from 689.6 billion yen ($4.2 billion) in 2020.

As Japan's birthrate continues to decline and the population of children shrinks, companies that once built their businesses around infants are increasingly redirecting their expertise toward animals. The result is a fast-growing industry where dog hip carriers, pet strollers, organic cat treats, and even pet diapers line convention centre walls.

From Baby Carriers to Dog Slings

The pivot was perhaps inevitable for companies like Lucky Industries, Japan's oldest baby carrier manufacturer. Founded in 1934, the company has produced more than 40 million baby carriers over its long history. Shin Ohta, who works in sales for the firm, found inspiration during a routine walk with his toy poodle near his home in Ikeda, Gifu Prefecture.

His dog frequently stopped during strolls, and carrying the nearly 5-kilogram animal became physically taxing. Ohta realised that the same engineering principles behind baby carriers could be adapted for pets. After consulting a veterinarian to confirm the design would be safe and viable for dogs, he helped Lucky Industries launch its first line of dog hip carriers, branded Nu-i, in 2022.

Hiroyuki Higuchi, the company's CEO, traced the strategic shift back to changing family structures. When the company was founded, Japanese families typically had multiple children, and mothers needed carriers to manage household work. Today, families are shrinking. A national survey of fertility trends found that between 2002 and 2021, the proportion of households with only one child rose from 10 percent to nearly 20 percent.

With fewer babies to design for, Ohta noted that generating new ideas for baby products has become increasingly difficult. The pet sector, by contrast, is performing better and is viewed by companies as a reliable growth area.

Unicharm's Cross-Market Success

Unicharm, a Tokyo-based company that built its reputation on feminine hygiene products and disposable diapers, stands as one of the clearest success stories in the pet care boom. The firm expanded into pet diapers in 2001, and since then, pet care has become one of its primary growth engines.

The financial appeal is clear. According to Unicharm's 2025 financial results, its pet care division posted a profit margin of 15.4 percent, compared with 10.7 percent for its personal care division. Although the overall personal care market remains larger, pet care delivers higher profitability.

Spokesperson Isshu Uehara told Al Jazeera that as of 2025, pet care accounted for 17 percent of the company's total sales, with ambitions to raise that figure to 20 percent by 2030. He attributed the trend to broader lifestyle changes in Japan, including people remaining single, marrying later, and the growth of childless, dual-income households. These shifts, he said, have led more people to seek emotional connections through pets, fuelling what the industry calls "pet humanisation" — treating animals as family members rather than simply as pets.

Customers now seek premium products designed to extend pets' lifespans and enable shared experiences such as dining out together or visiting friends, Uehara added. At Tokyo's annual Interpets conference, held during the first weekend of April at the Big Sight convention centre, Unicharm showcased its latest "Mannerware" line of dog and cat diapers alongside dozens of other brands selling everything from walk-in pet dryers to designer strollers and colourful pet outfits.

A Society Reshaped by Demographic Change

Unicharm and Lucky Industries are far from alone. Stroller brand AirBuggy and clothing company Sweet Mommy have made similar transitions, applying expertise originally developed for infants to a growing market of pet owners.

Barbara Holthus, a sociologist and director of the German Institute of Japan Studies, described pet humanisation as a trend that has intensified in recent years. With fewer family members and fewer children in the household, the emotional focus concentrates heavily on the animal. However, she cautioned that the phenomenon is more nuanced than simply replacing children with pets. Animals take on multiple roles — a pet might substitute for a partner after a divorce, provide companionship after widowhood, or serve as a playmate for an only child.

Holthus identified Japan as a prime example of changing family structures, including the emergence of what she termed the "multi-species family." Declining birth rates, loneliness, and rising urbanisation all help explain why the humanisation of pets has been particularly pronounced in the country.

As for why infant-focused brands are turning to pets, Holthus offered a straightforward assessment: companies want to make money, and due to demographic change, their traditional market is disappearing. The pet care boom, in other words, is as much a story of economic adaptation as it is of evolving family life in one of the world's most rapidly ageing societies.

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Source: Al Jazeera English