A person in Japan was mauled to death by a bear on Friday, the identical week a bear pounced at shoppers at a food market in an area north of Tokyo and one other person was found decapitated in a suspected bear attack, marking an uptick in such confrontations, Japanese officials said.
In response to the Japan Times, a person in his 70s who went missing after going to reap mushrooms within the woods was found dead after a mauling.
“We suspect he was attacked by a bear based on scratch marks,” an official from the Iwate Prefectural Police told the Japanese news outlet.
Between April and September, five bear-related deaths have been confirmed in Japan, and 108 people have been injured. Several incidents under investigation, including the person found on Friday, could lead to a record variety of bear-related deaths within the country since 2023, in accordance with the AFP.
On Wednesday, Iwate police found one other dead man, allegedly killed by a bear, whose head had been separated from his body, officials said.
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Then, on Saturday within the Nagano Prefecture, the body of a 78-year-old man with multiple claw marks was found.
The victims are all believed to have been killed by bears, though investigations are still ongoing.
On Sunday, a Spanish tourist was attacked by a bear at a bus stop within the Shirakawago settlement in Gifu Prefecture, the Japanese Times said.
Amongst the most recent confirmed mauling fatalities is a lady in her 70s who died last week while picking mushrooms within the Miyagi Prefecture. She was with three friends, one among whom is missing, it added.
May 14, 2025: Photo taken on May 14, 2025, shows a bear and two cubs walking on a road in Shiretoko National Park within the northern Japanese town of Shari in Hokkaido. In Japan, sightings of bears coming all the way down to populated areas in quest of food, in addition to reports of attacks on humans by the animals, are on the rise.
(Credit Image: © Kyodonews via ZUMA Press)
Last Tuesday, two people suffered minor injuries after a bear wandered right into a food market in Numata City, an urban area northwest of Tokyo.
Japan’s national public broadcaster, NHK, wrote that police were called to reports of a bear lying on top of a customer after it reportedly attacked an individual in the shop’s parking zone.
In response to AFP, the bear was roughly 1.4 metres long and scoured the shop’s fish and sushi selections before stamping on avocados within the fruit section.
The shop, situated near mountainous regions where bears are found, had never experienced a bear attack, Hiroshi Horikawa, a management planning official on the food market chain, told AFP.
Reports of bear attacks in Japan, including in residential neighbourhoods, have change into more common in recent times, partly attributable to a declining human population and climate change, which have impacted bears’ access to food sources and, in turn, their hibernation cycles.
Bear populations are growing in Japan, which is home to 2 species of bears: the Japanese black bear and the Hokkaido brown bear.
In response to Reuters, Japanese bear populations are on the rise partly attributable to an aging population of skilled hunters struggling to administer them, in addition to broader conservation efforts that include hunting bans and a decline in rural human populations, leaving space for bears to expand their habitats.
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