Bear attacks are rising in Japan. Aging hunters are on the front line.

A gunshot rang out on a recent morning in a meadow in northern Japan. The brown bear plunged in the cage, viewed by a handful of city officials and hunters.

The bear had been roaming around a nearby home and eating its way through surrounding cornfields, so authorities and hunters in Sunagawa city had set a trap with a deer carcass to entice the starved creature.

For me, it's constantly a bit deflating when a bear gets caught, Haruo Ikegami, 75, who heads the local hunters' association, informed Reuters hours beforehand.

Japan is coming to grips with a growing bear problem. A diminishing band of aging hunters is on the front line.

A record 219 people were victims of bear attacks, 6 of them deadly, in the 12 months through March 2024, while more than 9,000 black and brown bears were caught and chosen over that period, according to Japan's environment ministry ( To see the full story, go to )

Both types' environments have been broadening; the ministry. price quotes that the number of brown bears in Hokkaido, Japan's. northern island, more than doubled to about 11,700 in the 3. decades through 2020. (It doesn't keep price quotes on black bears,. the majority of which reside on the main island of Honshu, though a widely. cited 2023 analysis by Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun paper. estimated their numbers at roughly 44,000, a threefold increase. since 2012.). Restrictions on searching practices and higher focus on. preservation added to a rise in bear sightings over. current decades, according to Japan's Forest Research and. Management Organisation. With Japan's rural areas experiencing. fast group decline, bears are venturing closer to towns. and towns and into deserted farmland, an environment. ministry professional panel said in February. But bear proficiency among local governments is spotty, and. Japan's reliance on leisure hunters to safeguard settlements. looks unsustainable as its population ages, according to Reuters. interviews with practically 2 lots individuals, including specialists,. hunters, officials and locals.

Numerous called for modifications to the way Japan handles human-bear. dispute to deal with security concerns while ensuring a future for. the bears.

In Hokkaido cities and towns like Sunagawa, Naie, Iwamizawa. and Takikawa, which Reuters checked out in October, some homeowners. question what will occur when hunters can no longer get the job done.

Toru Yoshino, a 66-year-old chicken farmer in Sunagawa, stated. he was terrified by a bear that would wander into his farm a. couple of years ago. As regional authorities weighed how to respond, they. ultimately depended on the hunters' association, the Sunagawa. Ryoyukai, to neutralise the risk, he said.

Sunagawa's city government informed Reuters that efforts to. catch the bear were complicated by its proximity to homes and. deliberations about what to do when the animal was caught.

Although some hunters stalk bears as a pastime, Ikegami. reckons few are thrilled about choosing caught bears for. city governments.

I don't desire individuals to think of searching as something. fashionable. What we do is tough. It's a huge problem to take. a life, he stated.

The problem is both psychological and financial. The hunter that shot. the bear in Sunagawa would get about 8,000 yen (about $50),. maybe enough to cover fuel and expenditures but little else,. Ikegami stated.

Hunters likewise risk clashing with authorities. Ikegami's guns. were seized by Hokkaido authorities in 2019 after they deemed. his effort to shoot a bear near a house was ill-judged. He is. battling in court to have the weapons returned. The Hokkaido. safety authorities involved in the matter declined to deal with. Reuters questions about the case.

In response to increased bear attacks, Japanese government. officials this year proposed relaxing rules around weapon use to. make it much easier for hunters to shoot bears in city locations.

City governments of Sunagawa, Takikawa and Iwamizawa informed. Reuters that regional and nationwide authorities might go further. to resolve the issue. This might include promoting the. recruitment of hunters and enhancing their conditions, among. other concepts.

Japan's environment ministry stated it subsidises efforts to. train local authorities and conduct bear drills in towns, however. added that local distinctions in human-bear disputes called. for custom-made methods. The Hokkaido government's wildlife. bureau said it ran different initiatives to incentivise and. recruit hunters, including marketing events and training. individuals in how to manage brown bears.

Ecological group WWF said in an email that to preserve. Japan's bear population, authorities need to take actions. including establishing human-wildlife buffer zones and creating. a national protection and management strategy. It declined to. comment specifically on the culling of bears in Japan.

While its numbers have been growing in Japan, the Asiatic. black bear is noted as susceptible on the IUCN's red list of. threatened species globally. The brown bear is listed as least. concern.

AGING

Bear hunting was profitable until the 1980s, and conceal and. bile were traded for high costs. However with growing ecological. awareness and modifications to regulations and consumer tastes, the. practice has fallen out of favour.

Japan released some 218,500 searching licences in the 2020. fiscal year, less than half of the 517,800 it released in 1975,. according to main data. While about 98% of those issued in. 1975 were for shooting, that figure dropped to 42% in 2020, the. latest information. The staying licences are for trapping. About. 60% of licence holders were aged over 60, according to 2020. data.

Searching is pricey, unappealing, and tiring, the. hunters say.

Traps need to be checked daily while bears lurk close by. Rifle owners need to follow Japan's strict guns laws and. buy ammunition and weapon storage.

Those difficulties came to a head previously this year in Naie,. where hunter Tatsuhito Yamagishi, 72, implicated the local. federal government of taking hunters for granted, without investing in a. longer-term option.

When we grow old and have no option but to give up, this. reliance on the hunters' association is not going to work,. Yamagishi stated.

Naie's city government declined to talk about the conflict. with Yamagishi however stated officials were taking actions to address. the bear problem, including working with certified hunters from. outside the area.

Some specialists, including Koji Yamazaki, a professor at Tokyo. University of Agriculture who studies bears, said depopulation. and a decrease in the quantity of managed farmland in current. decades might have led bears to end up being bolder about approaching. towns. Clearer separation in between habitats would help people. and bears coexist, he said.

Yoshikazu Sato, teacher of farming at Rakuno Gakuen. University, stated bears appeared to be raising cubs more detailed to. human settlements, causing young bears not to fear individuals as. much as in the past. Climate change-driven shifts in the ripening and. blooming of fruits, nuts and leaves might drive bears to raid. crops when their typical food sources are low, he added.

What we need is a daily, consistent effort to make certain. that bears do not go into human areas, Sato said.

MONSTER WOLF

Katsuo Harada, an 84-year-old hunter, stated that ultimately,. Japan should produce a system where hunters are paid enough to. support a family. Unless they're paid correctly, we can't. support the next generation of hunters, he stated.

Harada carries the scars of a bear attack more than 20 years. earlier, when the animal sank its teeth into his skull.

It sounded like it was munching on some raw radish, he. stated.

He fought off the bear, and his searching pals called for. aid. The subsequent surgery took 16 hours, he said.

Harada is now part of a non-profit organisation, Farming. Support Hokkaido, that helps communities keep problematic. wildlife at bay.

If I do not keep doing my job, there may be casualties,. Harada said.

Japan's environment ministry in September cautioned about the. possibility of a surge in bear attacks towards year-end, when. the animals usually scavenge for food to store up fat for. hibernation. In 2023, bear sightings and attacks peaked in. October, according to official information. With Japan's population aging and shrinking, some companies are. turning to technology to handle bears.

Propped on four rods, the Beast Wolf robot offered by. Sapporo-based Wolf Kamuy gives off roars, barks and dangers from a. loudspeaker, set off by a sensing unit.

Priced at about 400,000 yen (roughly $2,550) and powered by. solar power, the gleaming-eyed beast has shown some. success in warding off bears, though its sensing unit can be activated. by other animals, stated company vice-president Yuji Ohta.

But Yamagishi, the hunter in Naie, said it takes years of. analysing pawprints and dung and learning to read bears' signs. to comprehend how to trap them, adding that human knowledge will. remain essential to managing the issue.

Yamagishi believes it would take three to five years to train. a brand-new generation of hunters.

Already, we'll all be retired, he said.

(source: Reuters)