Market Overview

The domestic pet tech market size for FY2018 based on the retail amount rose to 321.7% of that of the previous fiscal year to be valued at 740 million yen.

Pet tech is the compound word made up of pet and technology, and is the generic name of products and services that support pet owners by using IT technologies. In the domestic market, pet tech includes pet cameras, pet trackers (detects and finds the pet), smart toilet for cats, some devices and apps that analyze active mass and/or feelings of dogs.

Pet cameras are equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor pets (primarily dogs) while the owner is away from home. Such cameras include those that inform the owner’s smartphone whenever the dog seeks communications with the owner, those with automatic tracking function that enable the owner to look at the pet whenever he/she wants to, and those that recognize the dog or cat by deep learning and send the pet-only image (the rest of unnecessary background is cut off) to the owner through the apps. A smart toilet for a cat manages the health of the cat by automatically measuring urine data (volume and frequency) and the weight of the animal. Some products of such smart toilet include those that identify each cat by face authentication, or by the identification badge placed on the cat collar. Pet trackers include those that use GPS, and some others use Bluetooth communications to receive the wave by a smartphone to ascertain the whereabouts of the missing cat.

The domestic pet tech market was launched in around 2016 by some of large or venture companies releasing some products based on the novel ideas with no similar products existed before. This was because the technologies including AI became available at practical level, enabling them to be applied to pet goods. In addition, crowdfunding facilitated financing such ventures by the pet owners who are willing to support the new ideas to be developed as new products.

Pet tech products vary in technologies and methods used, though the purpose of the development may be similar. It is because the market players originate the idea by considering what it is to make the pet owners feel convenient and develop their technologies accordingly to achieve the specs and functions of such an idea.

Noteworthy Topics

Obligation to Microchip Pets and Future Possibility

Microchips for pets have come to attract attention, as the revised animal protection law requiring dog and cat owners to microchip their pets. A microchip for a pet manages and identifies the individual animal by registering 15-digit unique information that conforms to ISO. By reading the registered information through the specific reader, and by verifying it at the registered organization, the owner can be identified.


Microchips are essentially for those lost and sheltered dogs and cats to be able to go back to their owners. Therefore, the volume of information that a microchip can carry may be limited. However, some makers have succeeded in improving the performance of such microchips by using their original technologies, enabling to contain more information in addition to the 15-digit information conforming to ISO, by which it is possible to register additional information such as the telephone number of a veterinary hospital.

Future Outlook

The CAGR of the domestic pet tech market size from FY2018 to FY2023 is projected to be 46.7%, with the market size achieving 5,030 million yen by FY2023, based on the retail amount.


While pets have become one of the family members or a treasure, increasing number of healthcare products for pets have started being developed. Some pet tech products have already begun accumulating the data on cloud, which is likely to grown as the big data regarding pet activities that can be fully analyzed for the future. This may developed to be some products that anticipate the potential diseases that the pet may go through in the future, and visualize the state of health or of recovery from treatment.


The future technological advancement is likely to broaden the range of materialization of ideas at each company. Pet owners are likely to focus more on such new products and accept them gradually. Therefore, the domestic pet tech market is projected to be on the rise.

Research Outline