My guess: it's a tanuki making a street performance. Japanese performance artists often work with apes or tanukis, because they are said to be able to transcend from the animal kingdom to the realm of men to entertain, to help, to befriend, to trick or even to curse us. Tanukis are supposedly also shapeshifters, drunkards and sometimes even messengers of the ancient tutelary gods.
And I wouldn't worry, this tanuki definitely lives a very good life. They are held in high regards in Japan and are not to be kept in cages, be beaten, left hungry or anyting like that.
Here's the wiki article. Even though the wiki article isn't entirely accurate, it gives about the right impression.