Meet Hachikō of JAPAN

In 1924, Professor Hidesaburō Ueno took in the Akita puppy, Hachiko as a pet. Over the next year or so pet and master developed a very close bound. They have developed a daily routine where Hachiko would see Professor Ueno out to the door of the Shibuya train station and be there again at the end of the day when he would greet his master and they would walk back home together.
The pair continued their daily routine until May 1925, when Professor Ueno did not return on the usual train one evening. The professor had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage at the Tokyo University where he was teaching. He died and never returned to the train station where his faithful dog and friend was waiting. But every single day Hachiko wold return to the Shibuya train station at the expected time of the professor’s return…he did this for the next nine years.

After the professor’s death Hachiko was given away to a different owner, but he would routinely escape returning again and again to his old home. Eventually, Hachikō realized that Professor Ueno no longer lived at the house. So he went to look for his master at the train station where he had accompanied him so many times before. Each day, Hachikō waited for Professor Ueno to return. And each day he did not see his friend among the commuters at the station.

Hachiko became a permanent fixture at the train station and attracted the attention of the commuters.Many of the people who frequented the Shibuya train station had seen Hachikō and Professor Ueno together each day. They brought Hachikō treats and food to nourish him during his wait.