At first it was single women. Then retiring baby-boomers. Now, Honda Motor has

At first it was single women. Then retiring baby-boomers. Now, Honda Motor has sniffed out another growing demographic of potential car buyers in Japan: the dog-lover.The new 'Freed' mini-van, launched in Japan on Thursday (May 29), promises to be the answer to dog owners who simply won't leave their pets behind.

The vehicle has the lowest floor yet among Honda's mini-vans, at just 39 cm (15.35 inches) from the ground to the rear section, while the cargo space is just 48 cm off the ground.

"This 'Freed' is, for a family mini-van, pretty spacious for its size and its floor is lower to allow dogs such as this one to jump on. And it is also easily cleaned. So I would love to see families with dogs use this car," said Tokio Isono, Honda's chief engineer and dog-lover said as he commanded his short-legged, three-year-old corgi May to jump in during a demonstration.

Thanks to a recent pet boom and a declining birthrate, Japanese now have more dogs and cats than they do children under 15.Detecting a trend, Honda came up with the W.O.W. concept car at the 2005 Tokyo Motor Show designed especially for dogs: detachable, easy-to-clean seats, wooden floors and a netted, built-in pup-crate in the dashboard.

Japan's No.2 automaker is also looking to win points with canine fans using a website that offers information on dog-friendly cafes and hotels, dimensions for its cars' cargo space for stashing cages, a rating system that ranks seat fabric for ease of removing dog hair, and much more.

The site, which can also be reached by clicking on the 'dog' on Honda's Japan-based home page (www.honda.co.jp), gets 1.5 million page views a month. Internal surveys show that about 100 people decide to buy a Honda after visiting the site.