Tokyo dialect
"Tanuki" is often mistakenly translated into English as "badger" or "raccoon" (as used in the English translation of the film "Pom Poko" and outlined in Tom Robbins' book "Villa Incognito"), two unrelated types of animals with superficially similar appearances. Traditionally, different areas of Japan had different names for raccoon dogs as animals, which would be used to denote different animals in other parts of the country, including badgers and wild cats; however, the official word in the standard Tokyo dialect is now "tanuki", a term that also carries the folkloric significance.