"Hachi" by Eietsu Sakuraba, written in junior high school-level English, accompanied by Japanese text, comes out on March 8, the anniversary of the beloved Akita Inu dog's death in 1935.

In summer 2012, Putin received a present of an Akita-Inu dog puppy - the breed well known due to the Kachiko movie - from Governor of Japan’s Akita Prefecture Norihisa Satake TOKYO, December 3.