Tokyo
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Japanese soldiers who arrived in northern Akita Prefecture on Thursday were preparing to face a new kind of threat with fuzzy ears and weights up to 220 pounds.
This mountainous region is known for its lush forests, lakes and valleys, and is also known as a hotspot for deadly bear attacks in Japan this year.
Akita Prefecture Governor Kenta Suzuki said in an Instagram post last month, “The situation is already beyond what the prefecture and municipalities can handle alone, and the exhaustion on the ground has reached its limit.”
This is a national problem driven by the climate crisis and habitat change. According to government statistics, at least 13 people have been killed and more than 100 injured across Japan since April this year, the highest number since records began in 2006.
In October alone, shoppers were attacked at a supermarket, a Spanish tourist was mauled by a bear cub at a ruins, and a trail runner was forced to wrestle with a bear before sprinting through the woods to safety. The problem has become so serious that the British government has added a bear warning to its travel advisory for Japan.
In Akita Prefecture, the local government requested formal military assistance from the Self-Defense Forces, claiming that existing measures such as box traps and bear spray were insufficient.
However, the military has no intention of culling the bear. This is because Japanese law does not allow the killing of bears. In return, they will provide logistical support such as setting traps and transporting carcasses shot by hunters.
The actual killing is done by licensed hunters and local hunting associations, some of whom do it recreationally or part-time. But the group is rapidly shrinking and aging amid Japan’s demographic crisis, raising concerns that they alone will not be able to address the scope of the problem, Reuters reported last year.
The federal government recognizes these limitations. Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said at a press conference in October, “Local governments and hunting associations, which work together as wildlife control teams, are currently extremely exhausted.” “I think it’s natural for us to think about what we can do in response to requests from local governors.”
The National Police Agency announced Thursday that it would give riot police the authority to shoot animals in residential areas in Akita and Iwate prefectures if hunters do not respond in time.
Suzuki said local governments are considering more technology-enabled countermeasures, such as AI-powered surveillance cameras and drone-based warning systems. Similarly, in central Gifu Prefecture, the government is experimenting with drones that play the sounds of dog barks and fireworks to scare away bears.
Meanwhile, residents and officials remain nervous. Far fewer people are going camping, a popular activity in the cooler fall weather. Officials in some cities are distributing leaflets warning picnickers not to leave food unattended, NHK reported.
Some Akita residents are so afraid that they might encounter a bear at any moment that they rattle their door handles loudly before leaving their homes, the defense minister said, adding, “Prefectural residents are now living every day with that level of anxiety.”
Climate change and blurred boundaries
The number of bear-related incidents has been steadily increasing in recent years, although this year has seen a record spike in attacks.
Experts say this is partly because bears are increasingly moving out of their traditional habitat and into urban areas in search of food. Some suggest this is because climate change is preventing some animals’ traditional food sources from flowering and pollinating.
The Ministry of the Environment blames this year’s spike on a poor acorn harvest, which will lead to similar attacks in 2023.
Seasonal patterns may also be changing due to climate change. Some studies suggest that warm winters may lead to delayed hibernation and increased encounters with humans.
Another factor may be Japan’s demographic changes, experts say. For years, rural villages continue to lose their elderly populations as younger generations flock to big cities in search of better job opportunities. This means abandoned farmland, thick bushes and fruit trees, fewer people along these town lines, and easier access for bears into residential areas.
The number of bears has increased recently. In the past, bears were hunted in large numbers in Japan, causing a sharp decline in their population, but environmental protection was introduced in the 1990s, and the bear population recovered.
The number of brown bears, mainly found in Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido, has more than doubled in 30 years and now stands at 12,000, according to government estimates. The number of Asiatic black bears seen on Japan’s largest island, Honshu, has increased 1.4 times between 2003 and 2018, and now stands at more than 42,000.
This has strained the relationship between the mammals and Japanese communities, and government efforts have vacillated between protection and targeted culling over the years.
Culturally, Shinto and Buddhist traditions emphasize respect for life and nature, which are deeply cherished in Japan. Asiatic black bears are sometimes worshiped as mountain gods in Nagano and Gifu prefectures, researchers wrote in a paper this summer. But at the same time, bears are a very real danger, causing property damage and harm to humans, and causing “deep-seated cultural tensions,” the researchers wrote.
The tensions are palpable, with some protesting proposals to expand culling and hunting. Conservation group Kumamori, which claims to have 21,000 members, called on the government to take non-lethal measures and restore damaged habitat so the bears can return to the mountains instead. Another group, the Hokkaido Bear Research Association, vocally opposes the killing of bears for purposes other than legitimate hunting.
As the climate crisis worsens each year, disrupting natural cycles and seasons, Japan is currently preparing for a future surge in human-bear encounters in the fall and spring.
“Two years ago, the number of cases dropped sharply in November,” Suzuki said on Instagram, referring to a sharp increase in cases in 2023. “We are determined to survive this fall’s peak.”
