One of my sons wants one - heaven forbid! From what I've read about them, they aren't for the faint-hearted. They can weigh more than 200 pounds and, as someone else mentioned, they are used for fighting. Although, again from what I've read, the Japanese fighting wasn't quite what we have going on here (ie tossing 2 dogs in a ring and last dog standing wins). I read that Tosa fighting as akin to sumu wrestling (I maybe wrong, but that sounds a bit like a watered down version of Tosa fighting history). Unlike shibas, Tosas are a "created" breed, selective cross breeding to produce desired attributes. We may be seeing more of them in the future ... I noticed that the AKC has been keeping lineage records for Tosas, much like they do for recognized breeds - who knows ... maybe a prelim for applying for AKC.