21/08/2026
Every day for years, an Akita named Hachikō walked to Shibuya Station and waited. He kept doing it long after there was anyone left to wait for.
Hachikō was born in November 1923 near Ōdate, in Akita Prefecture, Japan, and brought to Tokyo the following year by Hidesaburō Ueno, a professor at Tokyo Imperial University. Each morning, Hachikō walked with Ueno to Shibuya Station as he left for work, then returned to the same spot every afternoon to greet him when he came home.
On May 21, 1925, Ueno suffered a fatal cerebral hemorrhage while at the university. He never came home.
Hachikō kept showing up anyway. For the next nine years, nine months, and fifteen days, he returned to Shibuya Station nearly every single day, waiting at the exact spot where Ueno used to arrive, with no way of understanding that the man he was waiting for was never coming back. By some accounts, Hachikō endured mistreatment during those years too, beaten and bullied by pedestrians and even children who passed through the station.
His devotion might have gone unnoticed by the wider world entirely if not for a chance encounter years later. In 1932, Hirokichi Saito, chairman of an organization dedicated to preserving Japanese dog breeds, learned about Hachikō and published his story in the Asahi Shimbun newspaper. It struck a nerve across the entire country. Hachikō became a national icon almost overnight, and the honorific "ko" was added to his name as a mark of respect for his loyalty.
A bronze statue of Hachikō was erected outside Shibuya Station in 1934, while he was still alive, and Hachikō himself reportedly attended its unveiling. He died on March 8, 1935, at 11 years old. Thousands mourned him. He was buried beside Professor Ueno in Tokyo's Aoyama Cemetery, the two finally reunited.
The original statue was melted down for metal during World War II, but a new one was installed in 1948 and remains standing today, one of Tokyo's most recognizable landmarks and one of the city's busiest meeting spots. In 2015, on the 80th anniversary of his death, a second statue was unveiled at the University of Tokyo, this time depicting Hachikō finally reunited with Ueno, dog and owner shown together at last.
Nearly a century after he died, Hachikō's story continues resurfacing worldwide, inspiring films, monuments, and comparisons whenever another animal is found waiting faithfully for someone who isn't coming home.
