Bears have killed record 13 people across country since April, with reports of entering homes, roaming near schools
\nKITA-AKITA
\nThe sense of fear is palpable in parts of northern Japan, where some locals have fastened bells to their bags hoping the noise will keep bears away, while signs warn people to be on guard. The animals have killed a record 13 people across the country since April, with a steady flow of reports of bears entering homes, roaming near schools and rampaging in supermarkets.
\n\u201cWe hear news almost every day about people being attacked or injured,\u201d said 28-year-old Kakeru Matsuhashi, a traditional \u201cMatagi\u201d hunter, as he walked through a forest clutching a knife.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s becoming something that feels personal, and it\u2019s simply frightening,\u201d he added in the northern prefecture of Akita, an area hit by a series of attacks.
\nThis year, the number of fatalities is double the previous record of 2023-24, with five months of the fiscal year still to go. Data is patchy from certain regions, but in recent years, Japan has seen among the highest number of fatal attacks globally.
\nKeiji Minatoya, also from Akita, knows this too well \u2014 a bear leapt from his garage, pinned him to the ground and sank its teeth into his face in 2023. \u201cI was thinking: \u2018This is how I die\u2019,\u201d said 68-year-old Minatoya, who managed to escape and take refuge inside his home.
\nThe government is now scrambling to deal with the surge in attacks, which scientists say is being driven by a fast-growing bear population combined with this year\u2019s bad acorn harvest, leaving some mountains \u201covercrowded\u201d with hungry bears.
\nTroops have been deployed to provide logistical help for trapping and hunting bears, while riot police will be allowed to use rifles to shoot the animals, which can weigh half a tonne and outrun a human.
\nThe victims include a 67-year-old man in Iwate, a region next to Akita, whose body was found outside his home, with animal bite marks and scars. Hunters were called to the scene and shot a bear near the house.
\nAlso in Iwate, a 60-year-old man is thought to have been attacked while cleaning an outdoor bath at a remote hot spring resort. His body was discovered in nearby woods.
\nOfficial data show the number of wounded is also on course to be a record, tallying over 100 people in the six months to September.
\n\u2018Overcrowded\u2019 with bears
\nA major issue is the expanding bear population, which is growing fast due to an abundance of food \u2014 including acorns, deer and boars \u2014 under the influence of a warming climate, experts say. Japan\u2019s brown bear population has doubled in three decades, and now stands at around 12,000, while the number of Asian black bears has climbed on the country\u2019s main Honshu island, reaching 42,000, according to a recent government report.
\nSome mountains have become \u201covercrowded\u201d, according to Naoki Ohnishi, researcher at the Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute. \u201cPut simply, the size of the bear population has gone beyond the capacity of the mountains to hold them,\u201d he said. Although rising temperatures have led to more frequent bumper crops of acorns, the nuts still produce good and bad harvests every two to five years as part of their normal crop cycle.
\nThis year, as well as in 2023 \u2014 the year Minatoya was attacked \u2014there is a poor supply.
\nWhile most bears still stay in the mountains, recent bad harvests have led some \u2014 together with their cubs \u2014 to wander into towns to look for food, said Shinsuke Koike, professor at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology.
\nWith exposure to humans, cubs in particular become less fearful and develop a taste for farmed produce and common fruits such as persimmon, Koike added.
\nSteady rural depopulation due to a chronically low birthrate and young people moving to cities has also reduced the human presence at the edges of forests and mountains, blurring the traditional boundaries between people and bears.
\n\u201cBear habitats inched closer to human habitats in 2023,\u201d Ohnishi said. \u201cThis year, they are coming a step further because they are starting from where they left off.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bears have killed record 13 people across country since April, with reports of entering homes, roaming near schools KITA-AKITA The sense of fear is palpable in parts of northern Japan, where some locals have fastened bells to their bags hoping the noise will keep bears away, while signs warn people to be on guard. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":514261,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-514239","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n