On April 8th, Students may have seen people gathered at Tokyo’s Shibuya Station to honor the memory of Hachiko, the famous loyal Akita dog who waited almost ten years for his owner to return. The ceremony is held annually to remeber Hachiko’s death in 1935, it has become a long-standing tradition in Japan.
Hachiko’s journey began in the 1920s when he was adopted by Professor Hidesaburo Ueno. Every day Hachiko would accompany Profe
ssor Ueno to Shibuya Station and return in the evening to meet him. In 1925, the professor died suddenly at work, but Hachiko continued to wait at the station every day unaware his owner would never return.
In 1932, a journalist named Hirokichi Saito published an article in the Asahi Shimbun highlighting Hachiko’s loyalty. The story spread all over Japan and turned the dog into a national character of loyalty. A year later a statue was built in his honor at the spot where he waited for his owner.
At this year’s memorial, visitors left flowers, and kind messages. Nearly a century after his passing, Hachiko remains one of Japan’s most beloved figures his story still touching hearts around the world.
