In Japan, weasels (鼬、鼬鼠, itachi) were seen as yōkai (causing strange occurrences).

According to the encyclopedia Wakan Sansai Zue from the Edo period, a pack of weasels
would cause conflagrations, and the cry of a weasel was considered a harbinger of
misfortune. In the Niigata Prefecture, the sound of a pack of weasels making a rustle
resembled six people hulling rice, so was called the "weasel's six-person mortar", and it
was an omen for one's home to decline or flourish. It is said that when people chase
after this sound, the sound stops.[10]
They are also said to shapeshift like the fox (kitsune) or tanuki, and the nyūdō-bōzu told
about in legends in the Tōhoku region and the Chūbu region are considered weasels in
disguise, and they are also said to shapeshift into ōnyūdō and little monks.[10]
In the collection of depictions, the Gazu Hyakki Yagyō by Sekien Toriyama, they were
depicted under the title 鼬, but they were read not as "itachi", but rather as "ten",[11] and
"ten" were considered to be weasels that have reached one hundred years of age and
became yōkai that possessed supernatural powers.[12] Another theory is that when
weasels reach several hundred years of age, they become mujina (Japanese badgers).[13]
In Japanese weasels are called iizuna or izuna (飯綱) and in the Tōhoku
Region and Shinshu, it was believed that there were families that were able to use a
certain practice to freely use kudagitsune as iizuna-tsukai or kitsune-mochi. It is said
that Mount Iizuna, from the Nagano Prefecture, got its name due to how the gods gave
people mastery of this technique from there.[14]
According to the folkloristician Mutō Tetsujō, "They are called izuna in the Senboku
District,[* 2] Akita Prefecture, and there are also the ichiko (itako) that use them."[15] Also,
in the Kitaakita District, they are called mōsuke (猛助), and they are feared as yōkai even
more than foxes (kitsune).[15]
In the Ainu language, ermines are called upas-čironnup or sáčiri, but since least weasels
are also called sáčiri, Mashio Chiri surmised that the honorary title poy-sáčiri-
kamuy (where poy means "small") refers to least weasels.[16]