A statue has been standing — in remembrance to his loyalty towards his owner — outside Shibuya Station in Tokyo since 1948.

The cream white Japanese Akita Inu — popularly known as “Hachiko” — has been memorialized in everything from books to movies to the cult science fiction for his loyalty.

All these movies, books tell the true story of Hachiko, the faithful dog who continued to wait for his master at a train station in Japan long after his death.

Hachiko was born in November 1923 in the city of Odate in Akita prefecture, the original home of Akitas.

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The Akita is one of Japan's oldest and most well-known breeds. For its calm, sincere, intelligent, and brave personality, they used to be taught to hunt animals like wild boar and elk.

The breed was designated as a national icon in 1931 by the Japanese government, according to the BBC.

The famed puppy arrived at the Ueno residence in the Shibuya neighborhood on January 15, 1924.

Ueno named him Hachi, or eight in Japanese. Ko is an honorific bestowed by Ueno's students, according to the BBC.

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Hachi’s owner took a train to work several times a week. He was accompanied to Shibuya station by his three dogs, including Hachiko. The trio would then wait there for his return in the evening.

When Ueno died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 53 on May 21, 1925, Hachiko had been with him for just 16 months.

"While people were attending the wake, Hachi smelled Dr Ueno from the house and went inside the living room. He crawled under the coffin and refused to move," Prof Mayumi Itoh wrote in a biography about Hachi.

Hachiko spent the next few months with different families outside Shibuya but eventually, in the summer of 1925, he ended up with Ueno's gardener Kobayashi Kikusaburo, according to BBC.

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After returning to the area where his late master Ueno lived, Hachiko soon resumed his daily commute to the station, rain or shine.

According to Hachiko’s biographer, Hachi used to stand on four legs at the ticket gate and look at each passenger “as if he were looking for someone."

He gained nationwide fame after Japanese daily Tokyo Asahi Shimbun wrote about him in October 1932.

The station started receiving donations from across the country. Later, a fundraising event in 1934 to make a statue of him reportedly drew a crowd of 3,000.

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Hachiko's eventual death on March 8, 1935 made the front page of many newspapers. At his funeral, Buddhist monks offered prayers for him and dignitaries read eulogies. Thousands visited his statue in the following days.

Every year on April 8, a memorial service for Hachiko is held outside Shibuya Station. His statue is often decorated with scarves, Santa hats and, most recently, a surgical mask.