The Japanese variety is said to have lived in mountains on the main islands of Honshu, Kyushu and Shikoku. The last known Japanese wolf was caught in 1905 in Higashi-Yoshino, Nara Prefecture.

Canis lupus hodophilax, the Japanese wolf, was once widespread across the islands of Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu. Revered in Japanese folklore as a guardian of the mountains and fields ...