Japan is Overrun By Raccoons Entirely Due to a Single Cartoon

Summary

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Ridiculous History — "Japan is Overrun By Raccoons Entirely Due to a Single Cartoon"

Podcast: Ridiculous History
Host(s): Ben Bowlin & Noel Brown
Episode Date: August 19, 2025

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Episode Overview

Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown explore the bizarre and unforeseen history of how Japan was overrun by raccoons—not a result of natural migration, but almost entirely thanks to the runaway popularity of a single 1977 anime: Ariguma Rasukaru. The hosts dive into the difference between native Japanese tanuki and raccoons, the cultural confusion between the two, and the environmental havoc unleashed by a seemingly innocent cartoon adaptation of an American children's book.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Tanuki vs. Raccoon: The Folklore and the Mix-Up

• Tanuki, or Japanese raccoon dogs, are native to Japan and play a major role in folklore as mischievous tricksters.
• Raccoons are not native to Japan. Despite uncanny visual similarities, raccoons and tanuki are unrelated species, often conflated in pop culture and media.
  • Quote: "If someone made a police sketch of a raccoon criminal, the cops would probably end up profiling and arresting an innocent tanuki." — Ben (11:41)

2. Raccoon & Tanuki in Western and Japanese Pop Culture

• The tanuki's folklore legacy includes magical abilities, famously (and humorously) their shape-shifting and the mythic motif of their oversized scrotums (explored in Studio Ghibli's Pom Poko).
  • Quote: "They're depicted using their scrotums as boat sails, as nets to catch fish or umbrellas. It's very Go Go Gadget gonads." — Ben (40:58)
• Raccoons in America are generally regarded as lovable, clever "rascals," often anthropomorphized in internet memes and media.
• The confusion is reinforced in pop culture: e.g., "Tanooki Mario," inspired by the tanuki, is often misunderstood as 'raccoon Mario' (10:20).

3. The Rascal Phenomenon: From Book to Anime

• 1963: Sterling North publishes "Rascal: A Memoir of a Better Era"—an autobiographical tale of adopting a wild raccoon.
  • Becomes a hit in America, seeding the notion of raccoons as cheeky pets.
• 1969: Disney adapts Rascal into a live-action film.
• 1977: Nippon Animation releases "Ariguma Rasukaru"—a 52-episode anime that captures Japanese children's hearts, triggering a raccoon craze.
  • The anime drew much more directly from the bittersweet themes of the original book and was a pop culture sensation.
  • Quote: "Kids in Japan...they'd certainly never read the original book, but something about the kid featured named Sterling and his animal sidekick, his familiar Rascal. It really took the nation's children's hearts and minds by storm." — Noel (19:28)

4. Unintended Consequences: Importation Explosion

• Demand for pet raccoons in Japan surges after the anime's success (1977).
  • Up to 1,500 raccoons per month imported from the USA.
  • Most Japanese families soon realized raccoons make poor pets—destructive, wild animals ill-suited to apartment life.
    • Quote: "You would have to raccoon-proof your house the same way you would baby-proof a house." — Ben (24:36)
• Once mature, these raccoons were often released into the wild, leading to significant ecological disruption.

5. Raccoons: Invasive Species Havoc

• Raccoon populations naturalized at lightning speed, spreading throughout Japan—including to remote regions like Hokkaido.

  • By 2021, raccoons were established in 44 of Japan's 47 prefectures.
  • Impact included:
    • Extensive crop raiding (hundreds of thousands of dollars in yearly damage)
    • Destruction and defiling of historic wooden temples (37:03)
    • Outcompeting native tanuki and other species
    • General "crime waves"—overturning trash, stealing fish and fruit, encroaching on urban and natural spaces.
  • Quote: "These raccoons...engage in continual acts of crime. All raccoon families in Japan now are considered crime families." — Ben (30:02)

• In response, Japan eventually banned raccoon importation and classified them under the Invasive Alien Species Act (2005).

  • Quote: "You can no longer watch a sick anime and buy a raccoon from the U.S. you also can't transfer it and you can't sell it to someone else in Japan." — Ben (35:09)

6. Cultural Ironies and The Moral

• The raccoon crisis in Japan is a classic tale of unintended ecological consequences driven by pop culture.

  • Analogy drawn to the "cobra effect"—well-intentioned actions creating worse problems (45:17).

• Despite their pest status, raccoons retain a beloved place in Japanese pop culture—plushies, character branding, and nostalgia for the Rascal cartoon run strong to this day.

  • Quote: "If you ask members of the public...they're going to tell you they love Rascal the Raccoon. There's a video game...plush dolls, cell phones. It's a brand now." — Ben (43:23)

• The hosts end with a plea: "Protect your local tanuki if you are in Japan." (38:42)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Tanuki vs. raccoon sketch analogy
  "If someone made a police sketch of a raccoon criminal, the cops would probably end up profiling and arresting an innocent tanuki." — Ben (11:41)

• On raccoons as wild pets
  "You would have to raccoon-proof your house the same way you would baby-proof a house." — Ben (24:36)

• Raccoons organizing 'crime families' in Japan
  "These raccoons...engage in continual acts of crime. All raccoon families in Japan now are considered crime families." — Ben (30:02)

• On tanuki-myth testicles in Ghibli films
  "They're depicted using their scrotums as boat sails, as nets to catch fish or umbrellas. It's very Go Go Gadget gonads." — Ben (40:58)
  "Go Go Gadget balls is kind of what we're talking about here." — Noel (40:54)

• On cultural impact
  "If you ask members of the public...they're going to tell you they love Rascal the Raccoon...It's a brand now." — Ben (43:23)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Tanuki vs. raccoon — folklore and pop culture confusion: 00:36–12:25
• Rascal book, Disney film, and anime’s origin: 16:01–19:45
• Anime’s runaway success and pet raccoon boom: 20:08–23:59
• Raccoons as invasive species — chaos unleashed: 28:05–35:09
• Environmental impacts & legal action: 35:44–38:42
• Tanuki folklore & Pom Poko discussion: 39:40–42:19
• Cultural legacy and wrap-up: 43:23–45:26

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Takeaway

What started as a heartwarming story about a boy and his pet raccoon spiraled into a decades-long ecological saga. The Rascal anime’s enormous popularity drove a real-world pet craze—with disastrous consequences for Japanese biodiversity, agriculture, and even native folklore icons. It’s a quintessential Ridiculous History parable: a tale of culture, confusion, and consequences, where pop culture quite literally changed the landscape of a nation.

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Transcript

[A]

Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to the show, fellow ridiculous historians. Thank you as always, so much for. For tuning in. Kenichiwa. We might say hello. Welcome.

[B]

Tanuki.

[A]

Tanuki. I love it, dude. I love a tanuki. That's our balls of steel. Balls of steel. That's our super producer, Mr. Max Williams.

[B]

That's not a Miyazaki, but it's a Ghibli. And there is about a family of raccoons that use their giant testicles as implements of magic. I don't know how else to describe it.

[A]

It's true. It's school Japanese folklore as well. You're Noel Brown.

[B]

It's me.

[A]

I'm Ben Bolan. And we are talking tanuki right now. For this episode, we're going to be talking raccoons. Because as you may know, folks, fellow ridiculous historians, there is a bit of mischaracterization and character assassination afoot when we come to the humble and ever cute tanuki.

[B]

I don't know about this. Are we talking because they have creepy human hands? Is it because they're characterized as being verminous bandits of some sort? What are we talking here, Ben? Tell me of this malign. How dare they malign the raccoon community.

[A]

I love the idea of a singular malign. Tell me if you're malign.

[B]

Tell me if you're malign.

[A]

So this is the deal. Think of it this way, folks. If you had. Let's say you had a twin brother, right? Since we're all dudes, you have a twin brother, and you are an upstanding citizen in your neck of the woods. But your twin brother is an absolute menace, and you get in trouble for a lot of the stuff your twin did, even though you were not your twin. That is the story of the raccoon and the tanuki in Japan.

[B]

This sounds like a fable of sorts set up. Yeah.

[C]

What are you talking about? Is Thomas Riker versus William Riker.

[A]

Oh, nice. Nice cut there, man. I like that as well.

[C]

Yeah, that's the deeper Star Trek cut.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. Let's boldly go into this story.

[D]

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[A]

Guys, we're all from the United States, which is a pretty. Mmm, I'm gonna be diplomatic. Pretty big deal. Still hasn't had the best time being. Yeah. Hasn't had the best reputation all the while. All the time. We know that. But no person, no country are perfect. But no, when you were growing up, a young lad, small German boy. Ah, a small German American boy. By this point.

[B]

By the way, look at this guy. Yeah, this is my, my small German boy is missing a limb, but this is me. I wish y' all could see this. It's a little rosy figurine, rosy cheek, a little bit. A little bit Aryan. Sorry. And he's wearing lederhosen and has a key of some sort around his neck. It was a gift to me from a trip that my kid took to Portland.

[A]

Heart shaped key. So, okay, you're, you're growing up in, you're growing up in the southern part of the U.S. did you guys Ever see raccoons?

[B]

You know, I had a friend growing up whose name was Shell is Sheldon. We're still friends. And his parents were real animal lovers and kind of conservationists. They worked in labs and they like, you know, worked with wildlife and they had a pet raccoon.

[A]

Ah. A tame.

[B]

So that was my exposure. I don't know that I really ran across any in the wild, but as an adult living here in Atlanta, you certainly see him rummaging. You hear rumblings, rummage, rumblings, running around.

[A]

I love to see a raccoon run quickly because they don't look like they're designed to do so, but they have the goofiest looking parkour and they're just adorable.

[B]

I'll tell you where. It's huge these days. And the most of my raccoon exposure is from meme pages on the Internet, on Instagram. They are beloved. And there's so many delightful raccoon, goofy raccoon meme pages.

[A]

If you're into washing your hands. Just getting into all kinds of little misadventures before you give a. Yeah, scamps ne' er do wells, Dennis the Menace types. So before I give a little anecdote about raccoon experiences in my own life, we've got. We've got none other than Mr. Max Williams here who may have a story to tell.

[C]

Yeah, it's a few years ago now, but it was like one night my cat Sylvia was sitting by the glass door just like looking out, you know, as cats do. And a raccoon just like sat right next to her on the other side. And the raccoon was very well aware there was a glass between us. The raccoon was like, whatever. Sylvia was not. And Sylvia, you know, she's solid white fur, so she just. I look over and just see this giant cotton ball. I'm like, sylvia, wait. Oh, there's a raccoon right there. And the raccoon was like, I'm a lot bigger than you. You want to go? You want to go? This glass between us, but we can go.

[A]

They can be chonky boys for sure, the raccoons.

[C]

This was a quite chunky one too.

[A]

I remember growing up in the southeastern United States. I spent a lot of time outdoors in my childhood. And raccoons always to me seemed so inquis and clever. You know, they wash their food before they eat it. And we. We're talking about their little hands off air.

[B]

They like to keep those clean too. They're always rubbing them together. And it does make them look a little bit Mr. Burns esque. But they are doing it out of a need for. For cleanliness. They've got pretty dang good hygiene. To your point, Ben, unfairly maligned is like trash creatures, right?

[A]

Yeah. But they do eat trash to be.

[B]

That's also true. That's also true.

[A]

They also do eat a lot of trash. I. I love when they rub their hands. Look like they're scheming. What we're saying is raccoons are not uncommon sight in many parts of the United States and across the country. If you are in the US you have probably accepted these little rascals as a fascinating part of the natural world because they've got panache. They're just sort of. We did an episode on what makes things cool recently on stuff they don't want you to know. And raccoons are kind of cool, right?

[B]

They are. They're very cool. They got a lot of personality. Yeah, that's what it is. I think the reason they're so big on the Internet is because of that just copious amounts of personality that the little fellas have.

[A]

Yeah. And we anthropomorphize the heck out of them. Right. Because of that personality, that sass and that swag. Yet it may surprise a lot of us to learn their relatively positive reputation in the United States doesn't always translate to other places, including Japan, where right now, as we record, raccoons are a very divisive life form. They're considered. They are still considered cool by a lot of the public, but the government doesn't think of them as a nifty little woodland scamp. They're a seriously concerning invasive species. Yeah. As we record right now, raccoons are wreaking havoc across the nation of Japan. And get this, folks, it's all due to one cartoon.

[B]

Oh, geez. Which one?

[A]

It's a Rascal.

[B]

Rascal.

[A]

It's Rascal. It's a cartoon about a raccoon. Now I go on a tick, you might be saying, hasn't Japan always had raccoons? Why were Noel and Max and Ben able to get that kick ass power suit in Super Mario 3?

[B]

Tanooki Mario.

[A]

Tanooki Mario. There's also the one that just gives you the ability to kind of float where you're still Mario, but you have a tail.

[B]

Yeah, exactly. It just sort of like beats the air back and forth and allows you to sort of float around. Oh yeah, the tail flip move.

[A]

Yeah. I mean it's. This gets us to our first common misconception and this might be surprising to a lot of us. Japan does have a native mammal that looks a whole heck of a lot like a raccoon. That's the tanuki, commonly known as the Japanese raccoon dog.

[B]

Okay. They are endemic to Japan, and they, as we mentioned earlier with the giant testicle cartoon Ghibli characters, they're big in Japanese folklore, similar to how other cultures regard actual raccoons. The tanuki is seen as the sort of mischievous king, puckish trickster type figure, a master of disguise and a real bacchanalian kind of fellow. Right?

[A]

Yeah. Lover of good times. We. We pulled up in our research just, just for reference for us, a side by side look at the tanuki and the actual facts shout out, lauren Vogelbaum, raccoon. And they look so alike, Noel, that I would argue if someone made a police sketch of a raccoon criminal, the cops would probably end up profiling and arresting an innocent tanuki.

[B]

I mean, hence your twin ref earlier. I think it makes a lot of sense. They do. They both have those dark kind of shaded circles around their eyes. They both have ears that are approximately the same distance apart. They've got kind of little puffs, tufts of white hair, the same kind of patterns of color. I would argue the tanuki is a little more hound like with the snout, a little more elongated snout, and that the raccoon. Raccoon has a little bit more of.

[A]

A squished face, a little wider face, a little more distance between the eyes. But the color patterns are very similar if you ignore the whiskers. And this is. This is the thing, the Japanese raccoon dog, the tanuki, is not an actual raccoon. The raccoon and the raccoon dog are actually not that closely related. Japan had tanuki forever. Japan did not have the raccoon until the 1970s. And when the raccoon did reach the shores of that country, things got nuts so quickly. But how, pray tell, Noel, how on earth did raccoons make it all the way across the Pacific Ocean from the United States to the nation of the Rising Sun?

[B]

Well, clearly they flew with their magical raccoon tails.

[A]

Of course. Yes. And that's our episode, folks. Thanks always so much for tuning in.

[B]

Yep. No, no, no, no.

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[B]

It starts right before the 70s 1970s with a Wisconsin born author named Sterling North. In 1963, north wrote a young adult novel called Rascal A Memoir of a Better Era about his childhood and in that book he adopts a baby raccoon for one year and the Book was a huge smash when it came out and admittedly I was not aware of this work.

[A]

Hey, Same. And Max, had you ever heard of this as well?

[C]

No, I had not heard of this one myself. So yeah, this is all new news to me.

[A]

Yeah, this is strange because for us, we're not of the generation that would have encountered Rascal, the young adult novel. In the book, as he said, he adopts our protagonist Sterling adopts a baby raccoon for a year. And a lot of us might be surprised in the audience, especially the younger amongst us, to realize that this is part of the reason people in America still frequently describe raccoons as rascals. Look, this was such a big hit that the tale, after it was published in 1963, by 1969, it was made into a live action Disney film. I don't know if the mouse will let us play the theme song, but it's very 1970s.

[B]

We better act in deference to the mouse. You know, we don't wanna get sued.

[A]

We don't wanna get moused. Yeah. So you can find mouse trapped, even mousetrapped. Even better. So you can find on your YouTube of choice any number of clips from the live action Disney adaptation at this time. This is all great for our author, Mr. North, and it's also great for kids growing up. Both the readers of the original book, the fans of the film adaptation yet is just the beginning of the story. Like we're starting in America. How about we Fast forward to 1977, Japan?

[B]

So here we are. Fast forwarded to 1977.

[A]

We did it. We made it.

[B]

Japan. Yeah. The Japan based animation company Nippon Animation creates a cartoon series called Ariaguma Rasu Karu. Which isn't that kind of one of those Japanese sort of American words? Because the word, the word is rascal. Rasukara almost sounds like a phonetic kind of thing.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, I like that. I think you're on to something. Rascal.

[B]

The raccoon is. That would be the translation.

[A]

Yeah. And unlike the young adult novel, unlike the. I'm laughing. Unlike the Disney film. Oh my gosh, it's so. It's so of its era. Please just please check out the Disney film. Even if the mouse won't let us do it. Unlike those things, this is an epic anime series. It runs for 52 episodes. The Disney film tried to be a little more playful. There are lots of bucolic fun shots of this boy and his dog playing with a raccoon. But this adaptation says no, we're going to cut to the quick, we're getting to the dramatic roots of this young adult novel.

[B]

Okay, okay. So kids in Japan originally, this was kind of alien to them, this creature. They'd certainly never read the original book, but something about the kid featured named Sterling and his animal sidekick, his familiar Rascal. It really took the nation's children's hearts and minds by storm. Airing all year round, the show was a huge hit. Think of it like almost a precedent setting type of property for something like Pokemon or other big pop cultural crazes there in the country.

[A]

Absolutely. Yeah. People were cuckoo for raccoon puffs. I guess you could say they were rakuku. They were rakoku. There you go. So this is where we see a turn in the story because arguably, Ariguma Rasukaru became a little too successful. And to tell you why it became too successful, we have to spoil a book from 1963. So before you get mad at us on the Internet, this is the spoiler warning.

[B]

Yes, indeed. We'll give you a little 10 second countdown. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Spoiler time.

[A]

Yeah. Okay. Like, like so many coming of age stories in young adult novels. From Old Yeller to My side of the Mountain.

[B]

No, Racklin didn't get Old Yeller, did he?

[A]

He did not get Old Yeller.

[B]

Oh, thank God.

[A]

So at the end of the novel, what happens instead is our childhood hero Sterling realizes, hey, I love my raccoon. I love baby Rascal. But all raccoons are in fact, wild animals, not domestic animals. So as much as I adore my little buddy, he isn't a pet. And so, with great regret.

[B]

You gotta let those ponies run.

[A]

You gotta let those ponies ride. Yeah. Sterling ultimately does the right thing. He releases Rascal into the wild. So it's definitely not as bleak as Old Yeller. Which we're not gonna spoil. Cause.

[B]

Yeah, but it's two and two together. You probably get there.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's still too close to both of us, it sounds like. But the ending of Rascal is bittersweet and it's a good way to give a lesson to K. It shows our protagonist growing up in the story. He learns his lesson, he loves his time with Rascal, and he lets Rascal live his own life as a wild animal.

[B]

It would, however, appear the children of the Pan did not take the meaning or the message to heart. No, because this led to an explosion in raccoon importation for pet purposes.

[A]

Right. It's kind of like if a film critic saw the first 20 minutes of Titanic and said, this is a film about an amazing boat, real luxury liner. So Requiem for a Dream is a feel good buddy comedy.

[B]

It's about friends. It's about the friends we made along the way and the limbs we lost.

[A]

Oh, geez. So, all right. You're absolutely right, folks. Nailed it here. Araguma Rasakuru was so very popular in Japan that the idea of having a real life raccoon pet became like the hottest Christmas toy would be in the States. Like an Elmo of yesteryear.

[B]

Yeah. And this led to 1500 raccoons being imported from the United States every single month to the delight of children and perhaps the chagrin of parents all across Japan. And just like the real life rasu karu or rascal, these animals were very much not suited for domestic life. I want to backtrack real quick to my friend's parents pet raccoon. Theirs was very much a rescue situation which could not have made it on its own in the wild. So that was. They were coming at it from that conservationist perspective.

[A]

It was probably acquired as a child, perhaps due to abandonment, and it was tame and familiar, possibly through their work as well.

[B]

Like with their research.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, exactly. That makes sense. And that still happens today across the country. As you were saying. No. From 1977 on, we see so many raccoons imported directly from the US to families across Japan per month. These guys are lovable, furry balls of beat me here, Max. Chaos. No cap it. No drawer left, unexamined pooping everywhere. Massive.

[B]

They've got opposable thumbs. They can open anything.

[A]

Right, right. You would have to. You would have to baby proof. You would have to raccoon proof your house the same way you would baby proof a house. And there's so much damage to these homes, this property, these apartments. True story. Some families did get raccoon pets in their apartments. And also just like the old Vietnamese pot belly pig craze, where everybody thought the pig would stay small and babyish for a moment. These guys do grow up and they get bigger. And as they become adult raccoons, they could also turn violent toward humans because they're wild animals and they're in a place that is very stressfully different from their natural environment. So, dude, just like Sterling north as a child, these kids and their families are learning a hard lesson about wild animals in your home.

[B]

Yeah, it's not quite as bad as, like Justin Bieber abandoning his pet monkey at the border, but did that happen? It did happen. It's in the same vein, it becomes one of those irresponsible moments in pet ownership where you sign up or bite off more than you can chew, and then all of a sudden you maybe have to make the easy, easier decision. Which, you know, while it is the plot of the book and in the context of the book, it does make sense. All of this happening at once, all of these creatures being released back into the wild at once creates a real problem with the ecosystem.

[A]

Oh yeah, 100%. And life imitates art, as they always say. And they say it for a reason. I forgot to mention Nolmax. You guys will both love this fact, because we're, I think, all three big fans of Studio Ghibli.

[B]

Was it Pom Poco? Is that what it's called?

[A]

Pom Poco?

[B]

Yeah. Pom Poco is the Ghibli film that we were talking about with the anthropomorphic talking big bald raccoons. Sorry, I don't know if that's what you're talking about. They do use their testicles to fly around. They inflate them like parachutes or zeppelins or something. It's odd to say the least, but.

[A]

It is historically accurate for the folklore. What will interest you guys, I think, is that Ariguma Rasakuru. Please Pardon our pronunciation here. We're not native speakers. The anime of Rascal also has a sleeper Easter egg in it. It features very early work by none other than Miyazaki.

[B]

Okay, okay, so back around like Pompoko was not a Miyazaki directly created film, but it was part of his animation studio. Yeah, Walt Disney of Japan. He's awesome.

[A]

Yes, and it seems a little bit cooler than the big mouse anyway, so maybe there is a sort of artistic or aesthetic through line here from are guma rasukaru to Pompuro. Because Miyazaki was literally working on this anime cartoon. Anyway, so like you said there, these well meaning families, right, tried to get their kid the coolest present. It didn't work out. It caused pandemonium in the home. They let them out, you know, drive to the edge of the city. Just like the old trope of letting a dog go free. Or dogs probably would just want to get back in the car, but.

[B]

But you gotta go. We don't want you anymore. Get out of here.

[A]

Throw rocks or whatever, all that means. Yeah, everybody cried. So the thing is, the raccoon friends here are hardy, resourceful. They're real MacGyvers of mammals. And most importantly, they're omnivorous. They don't turn Down a free lunch. So they quickly begin to thrive in areas across Japan. And this is where we see something that we'll call naturalization. In the world of biology, they're an invasive species, but they like where they're moving in. They like the neighborhood. So they're going across through the 1970s and the 80s to all different prefectures of Japan, even unto the very far northern part of Japan, Hokkaido, which is just so everybody knows it's very far away. It's tough to get there. And they did a great job. And they became a menace. There's no other way to say it. They're popular. Like, look, you're a raccoon. You just did your time in a Japanese home based on the fact that this one cartoon compelled the nation. You get out and then you meet a lady raccoon who's been in a similar situation and you say, oh, hey, babe, we got a lot in common. You know, we're not doing raccoon.

[B]

Oh, wow.

[A]

Yeah. We're not doing raccoon. Hinge. We. It naturally. I like your vibe. So these raccoons, time to settle down.

[B]

Start a raccoon family.

[A]

Yeah, they. They start a family of their own. Their population shoots up so quickly, and they engage in continual acts of crime. These are all. All raccoon families in Japan now are considered crime families.

[B]

Yeah. And it makes sense, you know, with the whole bandit look of them, you know, with. It looks like they're doing crimes, tippy toeing around. I saw there was a funny bit on. What was it? It was John Oliver recently where it was talking about crime rates. And it's. It was something like a. It was a. It was a publication for crime and it was called Reasons to tiptoe or something. And it showed like a criminal with a mask and a bag of cash, just like tiptoeing, you know? I mean.

[A]

Oh, a domino mask. Yeah. Where just exactly which raccoons naturally have. And also I want to say it does. Folks, correct us if we're wrong here. Do you like how I encouraged you guys to be wrong with me?

[B]

Of course. Let's all be wrong together.

[A]

Let's all be wrong together. A domino mask seems like the most inefficient mask. You know what I mean? Like the one that just goes over part of your eyes and the rest.

[B]

It'S sort of Superman rules, right? Like, it's like, come on, we know it's you, Clark with the glasses. And yet somehow that's the crux of his secret identity.

[A]

That's another question too. And not to derail us too far, but riddle me this. If Superman's glasses are his only real disguise, does his optometrist know his real identity?

[B]

You know who I saw pose that very question? Ben.

[A]

Who's that?

[B]

It's a singer. Her name is Aurora and she's a delight. She's from Iceland and she gets compared to Bjork a lot. But she does some really fun hot takes and that may well be a thing that's been floating. But she asked that very question. Does his optometrist know his secret identity?

[A]

Does he have to go to the optometrist even?

[B]

Well, he's got his vision. Arguably, the glasses are a prop Drugstore.

[A]

Reading glasses or what are the. What do they call them? Readers?

[B]

Another question that she poses in that same vein is why is it that superheroes are always trying to keep things the same and super villains are always trying to change things?

[A]

Oh, I love that. I haven't heard philosophical. That's great. That's deep. What was the name of that musician?

[B]

Aurora.

[A]

Aurora.

[B]

Just one real cutie like Aurora.

[A]

Okay, I'll check out the music this.

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[A]

These guys, the raccoons are raiding crops across the nation of Japan. They're doing it as we record right now. They're causing hundreds of thousands of dollars US Equivalent every year. The government does eventually ban the importation of raccoons, but it's too little, too late. The Invasive Alien Species act, which they've had for a very long time, now includes raccoons. And in 2005, they were called an invasive alien species, which means that you can no longer watch a sick anime and buy a raccoon from the U.S. you also can't transfer it and you can't sell it to someone else in Japan. And if you have one, you also cannot just throw it out into the woods.

[B]

Dude, that's the thing. Anytime you see these crazes that involve, like living creatures, they're almost always ill informed and really rushed without thinking about the aftermath for humans and for the creatures themselves. And you really do hate to see it.

[A]

Yeah, exactly. So it doesn't sound like we're casting stones here. Two of the most famous and sadly continual examples in the United States are going to be rabbit sales in Easter and black cat sales around Halloween. Those things continually happen and unfortunately, it doesn't always work out for the rabbits or for the cats. In addition, however, to the agricultural terrorism. All right, we might be exaggerating a bit there. Invasive raccoon crimes also include the following and Maybe we do it like a hit list. No, these guys are getting everywhere, right?

[B]

They are, yeah. No, they're, they're doing, they're doing crimes, they're taking names. They are destroying historic sites, including temples, which of course have, you know, incredibly important cultural and historical significance.

[A]

A lot of those are built of wood. The raccoons are also stealing fruit and fish from human vendors, usually because they're getting into storage spaces after close of business. Yeah. But sometimes, sometimes it's a land version of a seagull who just swipes something from a tourist eating at the beach. You know what I mean? A raccoon looks at you when you are selling fish or buying fish and thinks, can that person get got?

[B]

I think they can, yeah. They're also, you know, similar to the issues you might see. Well, raccoons do this here in the States too. Campsites and, and garbage cans and mountain areas or like, kind of more like camping type areas. People put locks on their trash cans and their dumpsters because of bears and other critters. Raccoons you will see often with like overturned trash cans spilling refuse every which where. And that's what they were doing there too, messing with garbage cans and dumpsters. And then I think most importantly, in terms of the overall ecosystem question of it all, they're pushing out native species with their sheer number.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. And sadly, ironically, paradoxically, one of the native species under the most direct threat is going to be none other than the humble tanuki.

[B]

Yeah. The irony is thick. Despite them not being super closely related, the tanuki and the raccoon are competing for a lot of the same resources. Which means that these American invasive species raccoons are moving in on the native tanuki's territory.

[A]

Yeah. And it's a country wide phenomenon. By 2021, raccoons had provably naturalized in 44 of Japan's 47 prefectures. A prefecture. Imagine it like a state, basically. So these populations are now widespread in relatively more remote areas like Hokkaido, as we mentioned, across Honshu. And the crisis continues today. So this is a PSA and a plea to protect your local tanuki if you are in Japan. Luckily, if we want to end on a positive note, the humble tanuki has some serious balls. And because we are grown people, literally and figurative, we have alluded to this in a very responsible way throughout multiple times thus far. Yeah.

[B]

Do check out Pom Poco. It is a children's movie that does depict these magical members doing all kinds of crazy, crazy stuff. Weird expanding scrotum is how you put it here, Ben.

[A]

Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You could learn a lot about this due to the folklore here. So we mentioned that the tanuki have. Similar to the kasuni or the fox, have long been treated as an animal of myth with magical symbolic powers in Japanese folklore. And yes, one of the ideas for the. One of the stories you see about tanuki in the wild is that they can stretch their ball sack to the size of 8 Tatami. Ma. I love how you.

[B]

Is that the metric, Ben?

[A]

That's the metric.

[B]

I don't think I know. Is that like a futon? What is a tatami mat?

[A]

Like, you remember when you see the traditional Japanese rooms and they've got that semi sitting area. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, okay. It's. It's a measure that may be native to Japan.

[B]

Go Go Gadget balls is kind of what we're talking about here.

[A]

That's well done. Yeah. So just like in the film we were mentioning earlier, they're depicted using their scrotums as boat sails, as nets to catch fish or umbrellas. It's very Go Go Gadget Go Go Gadget gonads. Right? Yeah, that's really good, Ben.

[B]

It's true.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And it's. And this isn't just. And it's. That's the thing that's so interesting. It's, it's, I think because of the cultural, you know, awareness around this lore, like, it would not have been shocking to a Japanese audience, but when I was watching it, like with my kid, we were both sort of taken aback because we did not know about this and did not expect there to be expanding Harlem Globetrotters Esque MacGyver balls, you know.

[A]

Exactly. Yeah. And this also, just for the note here, this dates back to the Edo period in the, like in the 1600s, people were.

[B]

You can find like calligraphic kind of, you know, scrolls and things depicting these various parachute sacks and.

[A]

And Max, our good friend Max, our brother Max is off camera and off mic and I'm having such a great time imagining your facial expression there. Oh, yep, there it is.

[B]

You got a live dead eyed when.

[C]

You go Gadget gonads.

[B]

Yeah, that's good. No, that's good.

[A]

It's not, not, not our best work. But we're working live. And so are the tanuki. So is the government of Japan. So are the raccoons. Despite all the problems. Problems caused by the Rascal Boom, which is the. Again, how ridiculous is this? 1970s a cartoon is the entire reason raccoons are an invasive species in Japan. Ever since then, people have been trying to fight against it, trying to save the native animal population, these ancient wooden temples and so on. But if you ask members of the public who are not experts in biology or invasive species, they're going to tell you they love Rascal the Raccoon. There's a video game that came out in the 90s. There have been pop up stores that people have spent a lot of money at. It's the merchandising is crazy. You can still see plush dolls, cell phones. It's a brand now. Rascal is a brand new.

[B]

This would probably be of the same era as like the kind of animes that I grew up watching on Nick Jr. Like David the Gnome and those fairy tale, those Grimm's Fairy Tale. Maybe those are more like early 80s, but this is late 70s, so 77. And it's got the same vibe of that era of anime. Do you remember those, Ben? They were huge. Like on Nick Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. Because I guess they were cheap, they could acquire the rights and they just, you know, were dubbed. But I remember some of those grim fairy tales ones that are very much in the style of this Rascal cartoon. Pretty dark stuff.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. Which I think was appealing to a lot of, a lot of kids when you saw a darker cartoon. It's kind of like when you go to the Scholastic Book Fair, which we're always big fans of, and you saw scary stories to tell in the dark. Right.

[B]

So Grimm's Fairy Tale classics.

[A]

Oh yes, I remember that. I remember that.

[B]

That was more or it was a little later than what I was talking about, but it very much is the same style. And I almost wonder. It's by Nippon animation. Yep, yep, 100%. It's like it's a house style.

[A]

There we go.

[B]

There you go.

[A]

And here we arrive at the end of our show. We hope you appreciate it. There is a parable here. We could argue in that that the story of the American raccoon in Japan has a ridiculous origin, but it has real world consequences that continue today. So we'd love to hear your thoughts on other ridiculous origin stories of invasive species or just weird pop culture or let's not say weird fascinating pop culture. In the meantime, it's a little bit.

[B]

Of a different vibe. But I can't help think of the cobra story.

[A]

The cobra. Oh, the cobra effect. The cobra phenomena. Cobra effect. Yeah.

[B]

It's just, you know, it's just not the same. But it's just it, it. The knock on consequences remain similar.

[A]

Oh yeah, yeah. If there's one thing human civilization loves, it's consequences that they did not foresee. We do foresee the close of the show. Thank you as always so much for joining us fellow ridiculous historians. Thanks to Our super producer Mr. Max Williams as well as his brother Alex Williams who composed this slap and bop. And no, we got to get Alex back on the show, but he's even more nomadic than me.

[B]

He sure is. And speaking of you, Ben, huge thanks to you as always, but in this one for your research prowess coming to us from that region of the world. Not to dox you too much but, but I know this is close to you and something that is very much on your mind and that was really fun to talk to you about.

[A]

Oh man. Same same. Big thanks to our favorite invasive species on this show, Jonathan Strickland, AKA the Quizzter. And Noel, I gotta tell you not to big up us to ourselves too much, but I think we have on a meta level level, we've been doing a great job sliding in one insult per the for the quiz related to whatever we're talking about per episode. It's true.

[B]

It's on theme. I do appreciate that, Ben. A huge thanks to Christopher Odis and Eva Jeffcoats here at Spirit Rachel Big Spinach Lands, who we owe an email back to to get her back on the show. She just pinged us again this morning, so I'm super excited to bring her back and talk about underwater explosions again. Again.

[A]

Yes, we it's a true story, folks. We know the world's foremost expert on.

[B]

Crediting this person in every episode after having her on one episode like five years ago and we just were that impressed by her and it's all coming full circle, y'. All.

[A]

Yeah, the Hunley, right? Check out that episode.

[B]

That's right.

[A]

Also, Noel, big thanks to you. As we were. The energy is really great today as we were hopping into record, you have not just a statue, an action figure of a small German boy, but you've also been acquiring some pretty cool tchotchkes. Could you play a little music?

[B]

Buddha wishes you a happy and productive life. We'll see you next time, folks. Foreign for more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Barcelona Crypto, it's on Kraken My crypto, it's on cracking. My xrp, it's on crack and I'm part of the XRP army.

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