The year 2000 is the year of the dragon in the 12-year cycle of Chinese zodiacal symbols adopted long ago by Japan. The dragon, of course, is a mythical beast. Unlike Western lore, ancient Asian legend features the dragon using its many extraordinary powers for the ultimate benefit of humanity. Asian folklore contains no tales of brave warriors or knights like Siegfried or St. George saving lives by slaying fierce dragons. The other symbols of the Chinese zodiac all are real creatures. That prompts the question: Did this age-old influence shape Japanese attitudes to other creatures, both real and imaginary?

For example, the symbol for 1999 was the rabbit or hare, an animal whose furry appeal fits right into the acknowledged Japanese craze for anything considered "kawaii," or cute. Yet rabbits, which are quiet and virtually trouble-free, have joined cats and dogs in the rapidly expanding ranks of abandoned pets here. Rabbits kept for learning purposes by many of the nation's elementary schools often have been wantonly destroyed by unknown cowards under cover of darkness in deeds of appalling brutality. The symbol for 1998 was the tiger, a powerful creature with which Japan has long had a more problematic relationship -- feared and yet in demand at the same time, its body parts used in still-popular traditional Chinese medicines. The tiger, like the legendary dragon, apparently is seen as living for the benefit of humans.

Now Japan is at long last imposing a needed ban on the trade in tiger parts, such as bones and the reproductive organs of both sexes. The ban goes into effect next April, more than two years after the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species passed a resolution urging all nations signatory to it to tighten their laws covering the trade. The government's action stems partly from continued criticism by nearly all domestic and international wildlife-conservation groups, which have been pressing Japan to join the other industrialized nations in taking appropriate action. In the meantime, while Japan delayed, the world's tiger population fell to little more than 5,000 in the wild, limited to China, India and Siberia.