Japan has a much more difficult problem to deal with than the weakening yen, tensions with Beijing, the entrenched birthrate crisis or the overcrowding of tourists that has already led to restrictions on travel. The country is facing an alarming rise in bear attacks on humans, with 219 incidents in a year, some of them fatal. To address this, Japanese authorities are considering an extreme measure: giving hunters in affected areas carte blanche to shoot them in populated areas.

Problem: Hunters aren’t so clear.

Bear drift in Japan. There was a time when bears were stretched thin across much of Japan. By the 1980s, overhunting had put them on the brink of extinction in some parts of the country, and in some places, like Kyushu, spotting them had become a nearly impossible task. That’s a long way off. And not just because of the passing of decades.

A short while ago the diary Yomiuri Shimbun He claimed that the black bear population has tripled since 2012, to around 44,000 individuals. And that doesn’t include Hokkaido, Japan’s second-largest island and home to around 11,700 Ussuri brown bears, another species that has expanded dramatically in just a few decades. Specifically, it’s said to have doubled since the 1990s.

More bears… and more attacks. The positive trend in bear populations in Japan has been overshadowed in recent months by another, though far less encouraging, indicator: attacks on humans. There are more bears in Japan, but they also encounter humans more. And again, the data leaves little room for interpretation. Between April 2023 and the same month in 2024, there were 219 attacks in just 12 months.

The number is alarming for several reasons. First, it represents the highest number of cases since records began in 2006. It also recorded more sightings: 15,000, or 4,000 more than the same period last year. Second, some of those encounters were fatal. CBS News reported six deaths, a number that has likely increased in the past few months.

In June, a 58-year-old man reportedly died from injuries inflicted by a bear in Nagano, Honshū. Asashi Shimbun He assures that four injuries occurred in the same province during that month.

How much… and where is the question. The data released by both Japanese and other countries’ media reveal three facts. First, there are a significant number of attacks. Second, the incidents have occurred across a significant part of the country, although the vast majority of incidents have been concentrated in the north of the island of Honshu, particularly in Akita. Kyodo claims that attacks have been recorded in 15 of Japan’s 47 prefectures over a six-month period.

Third, and perhaps most importantly, there are increasing numbers of encounters between bears and humans in urbanized or populated areas. The “scares” no longer occur exclusively in the forest, and they are no longer carried out by hikers or trekkers. In Iwate, authorities say more than half of recent attacks have occurred in a very different setting: near homes, or even inside them. In Akita, in the Tohoku region, they recently posted posters urging people to be careful of bears and even offering some advice.

So why are they attacking? Analyzing the causes of bear attacks, experts usually point to several factors: abundant harvest of acorns and beech in 2023, followed by a shortage of food for adult specimens, blurring of boundaries between forests and core settlements, or an increase in bear populations. Animals are gradually getting used to humans. This phenomenon also coincides with another phenomenon in the opposite direction: the population loss in Japan and the migration of young people to cities, which contributes to the depopulation of towns.

“Bears that enter urban areas tend to panic, increasing the risk of injury or death to humans,” warns the BBC’s Junpei Tanaka, of the Picchio Wildlife Research Centre. The chain is also shifting as bears’ behaviour and movements become more unpredictable as climate change alters their food sources.

Solutions are being checked. The problem is serious enough that authorities need to take action. In February, the government was already considering different options, including promoting a programme to control and capture bears, encouraging municipalities to designate specific, well-differentiated habitats where populations can be monitored, and even making it easier to hunt them.

The Minister of Environment has even advised residents of affected areas to dispose of their leftover food properly to avoid attracting animals to villages or tightly closing their doors. Some are even using strange robotic wolves to ward off the beasts.

Last option: huntersThe problem has reached such extremes that Japan is already considering a radical solution: allowing hunters to use their rifles against bears in residential areas. If it goes ahead, the proposal would represent a major change for the group. Hunters now need permission from a police officer to use their weapons in populated areas.

There is debate over whether hunters can pull the trigger without waiting for this direct order, or even hunt bears at night. The measure has not yet been approved, but it is on the table. On Monday Japan Times It has emerged that a panel of experts from the Ministry of Environment has supported the idea that hunters can shoot bears in residential areas under certain conditions. Moreover, the Administration will soon consider revising the wildlife protection law.

Japan Times The change states that hunters will be able to shoot in these environments with residents as long as a series of conditions are met, such as if a bear has entered a building or if there is a clear risk of injury.

“Who will be responsible?” The proposal raises doubts among hunters from the outset. At least that’s what they recently told the BBC, where they admitted some concerns: is it possible to shoot a bear safely with a rifle? Who will take responsibility if unforeseen events occur?

“If we don’t stop the bear, it will break away and attack other people,” warns Satoshi Saito of the Hokkaido Hunters Association. “Who will be held responsible if it attacks a person?” He also warns that confronting a bear is “terrifying.” “There’s never a guarantee that we’ll be able to shoot it dead.” Another 72-year-old hunter put it even more eloquently: Confronting a grizzly bear is not much different from “fighting U.S. military commandos.”

“It puts our lives at risk”. Proof that stopping a bear attack, even with guns, is not easy, as the city of Naie is trying to hire hunters for $65 a day. The idea is to patrol the streets, set traps and, if necessary, remove a dangerous animal. So far, little success has been achieved. The salary he offers has attracted a small number of professionals willing to take on a task that “will put their lives at risk.”

Tanaka assumes that the law change is probably “inevitable” but insists that it would be a “temporary” measure for “emergency” situations. The long-term solution, he says, involves a national policy that “changes the forest environment” and allows for the creation of “highly biodiverse forests”.

Pictures | Leslie Delay (Unsplash) and Hans Veth (Unsplash)

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