The fox appears as a trickster as early as Aesop's tales, in a common quick tale that appears in many forms around the world:

A Fox once saw a Crow fly off with a piece of cheese in its beak and settle on a branch of a tree. "That's for me, as I am a Fox," said Master Reynard, and he walked up to the foot of the tree. "Good-day, Mistress Crow," he cried. "How well you are looking to-day: how glossy your feathers; how bright your eye. I feel sure your voice must surpass that of other birds, just as your figure does; let me hear but one song from you that I may greet you as the Queen of Birds." The Crow lifted up her head and began to caw her best, but the moment she opened her mouth the piece of cheese fell to the ground, only to be snapped up by Master Fox. "That will do," said he. "That was all I wanted. Inexchange for your cheese I will give you a piece of advice for the future, "Do not trust flatterers."

Another popular source of fox stories come from Japan, where he is known as Kitsune. While kitsune stories are not as diverse as the Coyote stories, there are still some 1500 years of known fox tales in Japan, and they are not necessarily consistent. Since around 800 A.D., foxes have been connected to the Inari Shrine, the rice god, particularly the white foxes who are messengers of the god and shrine guardians. This is just one strand of kitsune lore, and indeed in most stories Inari does not figure into things at all. The foxes are mischievous, sometimes self-absorbed, sometimes helpful, and in some unique cases actively evil and destructive. Kitsune have different numbers of tails, indicating their age and their rank among the Kitsune. The leader of the Kitsune has 9 tails.

The chief non-cultural distinction between Coyote stories and kitsune stories is that in the former case, the stories are about the same being, reincarnated when necessary. Kitsune stories are about different foxes each story. Beyond that, there are obvious similarities. Both foxes and Coyote take the form of humans to trick them out of food or out of favors (sometimes sexual). Both show great power at times, and at other times get killed doing very foolish things. They are magical, but only when it fits the story, and the idea of what fits is seemingly subject to the whim of the storyteller.

Kitsune stories seem to have entered Japan along with Buddhism. In the many kitsune tales, the fox fits into the same role in the Orient as Coyote in Native American tales, as the joker, the clown, the wild card—part of the cosmos, yet refusing to be pegged into one role.