It’s a book that I have somewhere which has a section on wolves as well as mentioning stray dogs. As it takes place in contemporary rural Japan, stray dogs seem to have filled in the niche of wolves but are seen as bothersome. I found a lot of reports translated in Japanese that verify it.
However their numbers are controlled by humans. In fact there are attempts to reintroduce wolves though as others suggest those stray dogs might have been descended from surviving wolves that assimilated with stray dogs. In a sense that while wolves are practically extinct, they still survive in their canine descendants.
There was even a study noting that the Japanese Shiba Inu has the most wolf DNA of all the dog breeds so it does validates others’ claims in a way. I have a number of documents containing reports crudely translated from Japanese via Google that still sheds light on what the book’s saying and can act as supplements for those who want to learn more.
A worthwhile study that needs to be more in-depth for the very curious.
fynm 