02/10/2022
A native Japanese breed known as Matagi (hunting dog) was used along with the Hokkaido Inu breed to mix back into the remaining Akita Inu to bring back the spitz phenotype and restore the Akita breed. The modern-day Japanese Akita have relatively few genes from western dogs and are spitz in phenotype after the reconstruction of the breed took place, but the larger American breed of Akita largely descends from the mixed Akita before the restoration of the breed, thus American Akitas are typically mixed and not considered true Akitas by the Japanese standard.