{"id":231270,"date":"2025-10-29T02:54:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T02:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/231270\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T02:54:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T02:54:11","slug":"japanese-military-asked-to-help-deal-with-bear-attacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/231270\/","title":{"rendered":"Japanese military asked to help deal with bear attacks"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Japanese governor has called for help from the military to deal with a spate of “truly dire” deadly bear attacks, which have risen to record levels this year in Japan.<\/p>\n

Bears have killed 10 people this year, a government official confirmed, surpassing the previous high of six in the fiscal year that ended in March 2024.<\/p>\n

The animals have been increasingly encroaching on towns due to factors including a declining human population and climate change.<\/p>\n

Kenta Suzuki, the governor of northern Akita prefecture, told Japan’s defence minister that “the lives of our citizens cannot be protected without the help of the Self-Defence Forces”.<\/p>\n

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

\"Asiatic
\nJapan has two types of bear: Asian black bears – also known as moon bears – and the bigger brown bears<\/p>\n

Mr Suzuki said bears are now appearing in urban areas as well as mountains.<\/p>\n

It was “abnormal” for the daily lives of all residents to be so disrupted, he added.<\/p>\n

Newly appointed Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said in response that the government would “make the utmost use of the capabilities and authority” to restore safety.<\/p>\n

An environment ministry official who monitors the bear attacks confirmed that the number of people killed “has reached 10”.<\/p>\n

The latest victim was attacked along with three other people in a mountain village in Akita last week, the official said.<\/p>\n

But the figure does not yet include more recent fatalities seemingly linked to other attacks.<\/p>\n

A woman was found dead yesterday near rice fields in Akita, while a man and his dog were found deceased in the neighbouring Iwate region, local media reported. Both showed signs of having been attacked.<\/p>\n

‘Serious problem’<\/p>\n

Bears have attacked tourists, entered shops and appeared near schools and parks, particularly in northern regions.<\/p>\n

Hungry because of a shortage of food like acorns – which has been blamed on the influence of climate change – the animals are venturing more into towns where the human population is ageing and dwindling.<\/p>\n

\"Infographic<\/p>\n

Experts say that warmer weather is also affecting the hibernation patterns of the animals, which in the case of brown bears can weigh half a tonne (1,100 pounds) and outrun a human.<\/p>\n

Japan has two types of bear: Asian black bears – also known as moon bears – and the bigger brown bears that live on the main northern island of Hokkaido.<\/p>\n

Many bears are shot every year, although Japan’s ageing human population means that the number of hunters is declining.<\/p>\n

Last week, Japan’s new Environment Minister Hirotaka Ishihara called bear attacks “a big problem, a serious problem”.<\/p>\n

“We are committed to further strengthening various measures including securing and training government hunters and managing the bear population,” he told a news conference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Japanese governor has called for help from the military to deal with a spate of “truly dire”…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":{"0":"post-231270","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom","11":"tag-unitedkingdom","12":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}