Shipping animals to Japan

[Nickywal]

Can anyone recommend a good animal transport company to organise taking our animals with us next year? Also anyone know if you can ship dogs, cats and rabbits into Japan?

[Stephan]

Originally Posted by Nickywal

Can anyone recommend a good animal transport company to organise taking our animals with us next year? Also anyone know if you can ship dogs, cats and rabbits into Japan?

I used a company provided transport to bring my Cat into Japan. They took care of all of the documentation I just had to provide a record of the all of the animals health care and that it had been thoroughly checked by a vet within a week of departure.

Upon arrival my cat was quarantined in a local animal care place for almost a month. The cost was a bit high and my cat came to our new home a few pounds heavier.

[yippee1999]

Just as an FYI for the original poster, they shouldn’t assume that like the other poster here, that their cat too will be subject to quarantine. I think I heard that, so long as you fulfill the necessary requirements with enough lead-in time (I think there’s a 6 month lead in time req’d for Japan), that your cat won’t need to be quarantined. I think you need to have proof of rabies etc shots, health records, etc., and I know that there is a series of shots required over the few months BEFORE your cat enters Japan. I think generally the only time the pet needs to be quarantined (besides it's having an obviously contagious disease) is if the owner didn’t have sufficient lead-in time, or didn’t get all the paperwork submitted far enough in advance. At least that’s how I understand it.

Which brings me to a question I’m hoping to get answered….

I’m considering going to Japan for 6-12 months and bringing my two cats. My two concerns are 1) don’t most/all apartments in Japan have rooms with tatami mats? Can cats (with claws) and tatami peacefully co-exist?  I refuse to declaw my cats but I also fear that they’d enjoy using the tatami as a scratching board! How hard would it be to find an apartment with NO tatami? Secondly, for health reasons more than anything, my cats are on a raw food (meat) diet. Is ground meat, liver etc readily available in Japan and if so, is it very expensive? Here at home I’m used to paying anywhere from $4-6/pound for meat, or around 400-500 yen/pound of meat. Will I have a hard time finding affordable meat for my cats?

Tx!

[larabell]

Many cheaper apartments don't have tatami at all. The *really* cheap ones, of course, are all tatami (I'm thinking the typical "gaijin house" here) but one or two room apartments in relatively modern buildings usually have a hard floor and you don't get tatami until you're in the 3/4LDK size range.

And I'm no price watcher but ground meat is readily available here for, IIRC, between 200 and 300 yen per kilo, depending on the grade. If your cats are content with less than kobe-beef quality, there are plenty of small meat shops that might even grind up something of a lower grade to save money.

[yippee1999]

Thanks so much larabell for the info.

That's good to know on both counts! On the meat, the times I've visited Japan I never had any reason to LOOK for meat, but knowing that the Japanese really don't eat much meat, hence my concern regarding availability. My cats definitely don't need "kobe quality". :-)

OK, well that's one more concern I can cross off my list!

Tx!

Originally Posted by larabell

Many cheaper apartments don't have tatami at all. The *really* cheap ones, of course, are all tatami (I'm thinking the typical "gaijin house" here) but one or two room apartments in relatively modern buildings usually have a hard floor and you don't get tatami until you're in the 3/4LDK size range.

And I'm no price watcher but ground meat is readily available here for, IIRC, between 200 and 300 yen per kilo, depending on the grade. If your cats are content with less than kobe-beef quality, there are plenty of small meat shops that might even grind up something of a lower grade to save money.

[larabell]

Originally Posted by yippee1999

... knowing that the Japanese really don't eat much meat ...

In my experience, that's a common myth about Japan. It's probably true that, when compared to the American Midwest, meat is less of a component of the average Japanese diet than fish or other seafood. But just about every supermarket I've been in has a reasonably well-stocked meat section that's usually at least half the size of the area for seafood. And that's to be expected, since there's a lot more ocean around Japan than land within it. But if it's meat you like, you can certainly find it here fairly easily.

And Japan is well-known for producing one of the best meats available in the world. That probably wouldn't have happened if Japanese didn't eat much meat ;-)...