{"id":248739,"date":"2025-10-29T13:31:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T13:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/248739\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T13:31:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T13:31:09","slug":"japan-sends-in-army-to-fight-bears-after-10-killed-and-dozens-injured-by-wild-beasts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/248739\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan sends in army to fight bears after 10 killed and dozens injured by wild beasts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Japan is planning to send in its army to help fight bears after a spate of killings by the wild beasts.<\/p>\n

Some 73 people have been killed or injured by the animals this month in the area of Akita, in the far north of Japan’s largest island Honshu.<\/p>\n

Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi announced on Tuesday that members of the Self-Defence Forces would be dispatched to help local hunters after the Governor of Akita Prefecture made an appeal for aid. <\/p>\n

On Monday, the body of an elderly woman in her 80s was found in a ditch on the outskirts of Akita City.<\/p>\n

Authorities confirmed that she had sustained severe injuries and now hunters are tracking a bear thought to be at least four feet long in the area.<\/p>\n

On Friday, a couple collecting fruit in the village of Higashinaruse were attacked by another wild bear.<\/p>\n

One man who had been working nearby died from injuries which he sustained trying to help the couple, and another was badly mauled.<\/p>\n

Appealing to the national Government, Governor Kenta Suzuki said: “Exhaustion on the ground is reaching its limits.”<\/p>\n

\"Asian<\/p>\n

There are 44,000 Asian black bears, also called moon bears, living on Honshu.<\/p>\n

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Mr Suzuki added: “Attacks targeting the neck and face are extremely common, resulting in a truly dire situation.”<\/p>\n

He pleaded: “The lives of our citizens cannot be protected without the help of the Self-Defence Forces.”<\/p>\n

The Governor said that the numbers of local hunters in the prefecture have dropped, and those that do still exist are overwhelmed with requests to track and kill bears. <\/p>\n

According to the Defence Ministry, the military will provide logistical support but will not be armed and will not track or shoot the animals.<\/p>\n

ANIMAL ATTACKS – READ THE LATEST:<\/p>\n

\"Beware<\/p>\n

Local hunters are unable to keep up with the high number of requests to deal with bears<\/p>\n

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Instead, their tasks will involve setting box traps, moving equipment and hunters around the prefecture and disposing of euthanised bears. <\/p>\n

There are two types of bear native to Japan.<\/p>\n

One is the Asian black bear, also known as the moon bear, around 44,000 of which live on Honshu.<\/p>\n

The other is the bigger brown bear, 11,000 of which live on the main northern island of Hokkaido and can weigh half a tonne and outrun a human.<\/p>\n

\"Map<\/p>\n

GRAPHED: The number of fatal incidents involving bears is on the rise<\/p>\n

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Incidents involving the wild beasts are particularly common in northern regions of the country, which have seen tourists attacked, and bears entering stores and appearing near parks and schools.<\/p>\n

Experts believe the warmer weather is affecting the natural hibernation patterns.<\/p>\n

Kevin Short, a naturalist and former Professor of cultural anthropology at Tokyo University of Information Science discussed the reasons behind the recent spike in bear populations.<\/p>\n

He told The Telegraph: “There have been poor beech nut crops in recent years, which means that bears have to forage further afield to get the food they need to get through hibernation. <\/p>\n

“The rural parts of Japan have been experiencing depopulation for a long time as well and bears are just not as nervous around people as they used to be.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Japan is planning to send in its army to help fight bears after a spate of killings by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[1313,64,63,44,128,2489,3780,338,1346],"class_list":{"0":"post-248739","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-animals","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-us","14":"tag-us-news","15":"tag-wildlife","16":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}