Despite being a fishing town, there are no cats on the island. There are no dogs either. But, on Chiburijima Island, you will find cows.

As well as tanuki or raccoon dogs.

In fact, Chiburijima is the only island in the Oki Archipelago with tanuki.

The story behind this is rather surprising.

It goes back to 1941,

when the village chief of the time received a present from the mainland. The present was none other than a pair of tanuki. They were caged in the city hall for some time until one day they broke free—no, not upon some stolen motorbike, but rather through a hole they dug in the ground. A scene straight out of “Shawshank Redemption,” one could say.

Nevertheless, to these mainland tanuki, Chiburijima was an unknown world of mysterious organisms and diseases. Against this sort of Jurassic Park-esque landscape, the pair of tanuki had to cooperate to survive—in the midst of which this male and female…

Er, what we mean to say is that without natural enemies or competition for their food, Chiburijima Island was Eden to the pair. This Adam and Eve of the tanuki prowled the fields and garbage, snatched food from cows, and committed a slew of other burglaries while increasing their population. Some say there are about 2000 of them now, a sign that they learned how to feed themselves in a brave new world to say the least.

Even today, tanuki might cause trouble here and there, but many find it hard to hate them. You’ve probably seen these nocturnal critters who rob cows of their food by day and startle mountain road travelers by night. They are easy to encounter, but good luck catching them in any Pokéball. Hopefully, you have a bit more luck with a photo at least.

Yet, what is both mysterious and surprising is that the tanuki in Chiburijima Island are small. A similar phenomenon can be found on other islands: it seems that genes prevent organisms from growing larger if they have achieved too high of a population density. In that case, it seems there were too many tanuki on one small island.

And then it hit me: the reason Japanese people are so small is because there are too many people on such a small island!

とまあ、今日もあちこちで島の人々を困らせているタヌキだが、どうも憎めないという人も少なくないようだ。

あなたも、何度かタヌキを見かけたことだろう。夜行性もなんのその。昼間から牛たちのエサ場に入り浸っているし、夕方にもなると、山道のあちこちからタヌタヌパニックさながら飛び出してくる。

エンカウントしやすいが、すぐに逃げるのでモンスターボールは間に合わないが、できることなら写真で捕まえてみてほしい。

それにしても不思議なのは、驚くほど体格が小さいことだ。

ほかの島でも種族の密度が高くなりすぎると遺伝子が大きくなるのをやめるように働くことはよくあるそうだが、どうやら知夫里のタヌキも島の面積にしては増えすぎてしまったようだ。

この話を聞くと、ポン！と思いついた。

日本人の体格が小さいのも日本列島という小さな島にしては人口密度が高くなりすぎたからではないだろうか、と。