The Japanese boar (Sus scrofa leucomystax), also known as the white-moustached pig,[2] nihon-inoshishi (ニホンイノシシ),[3] or yama kujira (山鯨, lit.

[5] The Japan Wolf Association has been lobbying to reintroduce wolves into the country to restore the ecological balance which would curb the ballooning populations of deer and boars.

[5] After the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japanese boar descended from the mountains to towns and cities within the exclusion zone that had been temporarily evacuated.

[6] DNA analyses of individual boar that were carried out a few years later showed that the species thrived there and bred with escaped domestic pigs, resulting in the emergence of boar-pig hybrids.

The animal's link to prosperity was illustrated by its inclusion on the ¥10 note during the Meiji period, and it was once believed that a man could become wealthy by keeping a clump of boar hair in his wallet.