Japan's ever-faithful dog Hachiko turns 100

Japan's most loved dog Hachiko's birth cetenary falls in this week. For decades, there has been a hurly-burly outside Tokyo's Shibuya station, where tourists and locals queue up to take photos with the statue of the famous dog whose true story of loyalty has made him a beloved mascot for generations.

Hachiko belonged to university professor Hidesaburo Ueno. The faithful hound would wait at Shibuya station for his master to come home every day.

Ueno died unexpectedly in 1925, but Hachiko continued to come to the train station to wait forlornly for Ueno for nearly 10 years until passing away in March 1935.

Hachiko and Uenos story touched the hearts of many locals, who pitched in money to build its statue in 1934, shortly before the dog's death. The story also inspired two films- Japanese film Hachikō Monogatari and the English film Hachi- A Dog's Tale which starred Richard Gere in the lead. It also inspired an Indian film in 2015.

Hachiko's statute was melted down for the metal during World War II. A new one was installed in 1948 and became a popular meeting spot.

Today, manyqueue up to snap photos with the statue of the Japanese Akita dog, a popular breed with its own museum in Hachiko's birthplace of Odate.

"I would like my dog to be waiting for me as long a time as he did," Spanish honeymooner Omar Sanchez, 33, said as he snapped selfies with his wife and the statue.

"The story is sweet. And we need nice stories," said US businessman Daniel Callahan, 62. "The world is fractured... Anything that can bring people together is nice."

(With agency inputs)