{"id":351015,"date":"2025-12-17T11:59:23","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T11:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/351015\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T11:59:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T11:59:23","slug":"on-bear-patrol-inside-japans-fightback-against-a-surge-of-deadly-bear-attacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/351015\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018On bear patrol\u2019: inside Japan\u2019s fightback against a surge of deadly bear attacks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Japan\u2019s deadliest surge in bear attacks is gripping the nation. Upgrade to watch the full report<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

Sunagawa, Japan
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n Haruo Ikegami starts each day at dawn.\n <\/p>\n

\n Just as sunlight interrupts the darkness over his small Hokkaido city, the 76-year-old pulls on his rain boots and dons a bright orange jacket. This is his uniform, he tells me.\n <\/p>\n

\n After grabbing his walkie talkies, he trudges across his frosted garden and climbs into a green van, adorned with stickers reading \u201con bear patrol.\u201d His vehicle is instantly recognizable here. Along the drive, neighbors call out, asking about recent sightings.\n <\/p>\n

\n Ikegami is somewhat of a local hero in this rural community. Over his 40-year career, he\u2019s culled dozens of bears and sees his work as a crucial line of defense between the town and the increasingly unpredictable wilderness.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWithout me,\u201d he said, \u201cwho else would save this town?\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Bear<\/p>\n

\"Bear<\/p>\n

\n The metal cages he\u2019s set up are scattered across Sunagawa city, each baited with slabs of deer meat and positioned where bears have been spotted this year. The day we accompany him, his traps are empty. But he warns that the bears are never far, increasingly pushing into human territory and frightening those who live here.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cPeople are dead. This is a murder case,\u201d the hunter told CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n This year, at least 13 people have been killed and more than 200 wounded injured in bear encounters. Videos of bears rummaging through supermarket aisles, roaming school grounds and plucking persimmons from suburban backyards have gone viral on Japanese social media. Some schools have also closed temporarily, while residents in parts of northern Japan avoid going out after dark.\n <\/p>\n

\n The crisis has sparked national alarm. Japan\u2019s defense minister has deployed the Self-Defense Forces to hard-hit regions, and lawmakers are scrambling to find long-term solutions. The US and UK embassies have also issued advisories to travelers in rural areas.\n <\/p>\n

\n But for hunters, the crisis feels both frightening \u2013 and predictable.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThere are just too many bears now, it\u2019s an emergency situation,\u201d Ikegami said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Japan\u2019s bear population has skyrocketed, while the number of licensed hunters has plummeted.\n <\/p>\n

\n With more than a third of Japan\u2019s population now over 65, rural towns are shrinking. Few young residents remain, and even fewer are willing to take up hunting, Ikegami said, a dangerous job with low pay and little appeal compared to urban life in places like Tokyo.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIf the government had taken this seriously earlier, it wouldn\u2019t have gotten this bad,\u201d Atsushi Kanno, a 37-year-old bear hunter, told CNN. \u201cIt\u2019s nonsense that they\u2019re responding now, only after things have escalated.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n There are several factors driving the surge in encounters.\n <\/p>\n

\n One is simply numbers. The population of the Hokkaido brown bear, one of two bear species in Japan, has more than doubled in the last 30 years, with nearly 12,000 of the animals now roaming the country\u2019s northernmost prefecture. The stocky cousins of the grizzly can stand nearly seven feet tall and are found only in Hokkaido.\n <\/p>\n

\n The other species, the Asiatic black bear, is smaller, reaching about five-and-a-half feet. But it\u2019s responsible for fatal attacks as well, particularly in northern prefectures such as Akita and Iwate.\n <\/p>\n

\n Experts say climate change is another factor. Poor harvests of nuts and fruit are pushing bears to seek food elsewhere.\n <\/p>\n

\"Yumi<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWhen it\u2019s scarce, bears must find food. I believe bears are taking a step closer to human settlements,\u201d Hiroo Tamatani, a bear conservationist, told CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n Japan\u2019s demographic shifts also compound the problem. Rural towns and farmland once formed a natural buffer between deep forest and populated centers. But as those areas empty out, bears are moving in, taking advantage of the new real estate.\n <\/p>\n

\n Culling is currently Japan\u2019s primary response for bears that attack people or encroach on residential areas.\n <\/p>\n

\n The government has amended laws to allow riot police to use firearms more easily. But the Self-Defense Forces remain legally prohibited from using weapons unless national defense is at stake, leaving hunters like Ikegami on the frontlines.\n <\/p>\n

\"Government<\/p>\n

\n He trains young hunters, but few have the skill or confidence to take down animals that can weigh several hundred pounds. At the same time, he regularly receives angry phone calls urging him not to kill bears.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cAs long as we live here, we simply can\u2019t coexist,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cOur lives are precious to us. No person would say a bear\u2019s life is more important than their own,\u201d Ikegami added.\n <\/p>\n

\n Bear hunter Katsuo Harada shares that view. While the 84-year-old still goes out to hunt, his two apprentices largely take the helm in helping reinforce the boundary between the forest and residential areas.\n <\/p>\n

\n Harada also knows first-hand how powerful these bears can be. He was nearly killed by a bear more than 20 years ago while hunting deer.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI fired two shots, but the bear didn\u2019t stop. It got on top of me, pulled by gun out of my hands and bit by head,\u201d he told CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cMy eye and ear were hanging off,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

\"Hunter<\/p>\n

\n In the chaos, he shoved his fist down the bear\u2019s throat, cutting off its airway just long enough for the bullets to take effect. Harada says he remembers little after that, as he was fading in and out of consciousness. But he recalls reaching for his walkie-talkie and calling his friends, who were on the hunt with him, to get help.\n <\/p>\n

\n He keeps the bear\u2019s skull as a reminder of how quickly the roles can reverse\u2014from hunter to hunted.\n <\/p>\n

\n Public opinion largely supports culling. Many in Japan now fear hiking or traveling to prefectures with recent attacks, and a growing number prefer visiting \u201cno-bear prefectures,\u201d areas with no known bear populations.\n <\/p>\n

\n But conservationists warn against blanket killing.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cRather than killing them all, we should identify the ones that cause problems and deal with those respectively,\u201d Tamatani said.\n <\/p>\n

\"Picchio<\/p>\n

\"Hiroo<\/p>\n

\n He works at a nonprofit called Picchio, which uses dogs to deter bears, and tags bears to track their movements. Tamatani also advocates planting bear food trees away from residential zones, so they have access to natural resources further from towns.\n <\/p>\n

\n While repeat offenders may still be culled, he argues that these measures reduce unnecessary deaths.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cBears are not monsters. They\u2019re animals that live just like us.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Japan continues searching for solutions that protect human life while allowing wildlife to survive.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cHumans and animals have lived side by side for a long time. Sometimes we harmed each other, but we still must respect and acknowledge one another,\u201d Tougen Yoshihara, a Buddhist monk who was attacked by a bear in May, told CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\"Tougen<\/p>\n

\n Yoshihara survived only because his dog, Chico, barked and chased the bear away, he said. He escaped with minor injuries, but the experience has haunted him\u2014he now carries a carving knife when walking in the woods.\n <\/p>\n

\n For now, Japan stands at a crossroads. The country is pulled between fear and the desire to coexist with the bears, an important part of Japan\u2019s ecosystem.\n <\/p>\n

\n But until a lasting solution emerges, more lives, human and animal alike, will likely pay the price.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Japan\u2019s deadliest surge in bear attacks is gripping the nation. Upgrade to watch the full report. Sunagawa, Japan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":["post-351015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}