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Troops are being sent to the north of Japan to assist contain a surge of bear attacks, which have killed no less than 12 and injured greater than 100 since April.
Bears have shown up near schools, train stations, supermarkets, and even a hot springs resort, with attacks by the animals reported almost each day across Japan, mostly within the north.
‘Each day, bears intrude into residential areas within the region and their impact is expanding,’ deputy chief cabinet secretary Fumitoshi Sato told reporters. ‘Responses to the bear problem are an urgent matter.’
The Defence Ministry and Akita prefecture signed an agreement on a troop dispatch today, allowing soldiers to set box traps with food inside, transport local hunters and help with the disposal of dead bears.
The soldiers won’t use firearms to cull bears, officials said, despite Akita governor Kenta Suzuki saying local authorities were ‘desperate’ for manpower.
Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said the bear mission goals to assist secure people’s each day lives, but that the Self-Defence Force (SDF) service members’ primary mission is national defence.
In Akita prefecture, which has a population of about 880,000, bears have attacked greater than 50 people since May, killing no less than 4, based on the local government.
Experts say 70% of the bear attacks have occurred in residential areas.
An elderly woman who went mushroom-hunting within the forest was found dead in an apparent bear attack over the weekend in Yuzawa City within the prefecture.
One other elderly woman in Akita city encountered a bear while working on a farm and was killed in late October.
A newspaper deliveryman was attacked by a bear and suffered an injury in Akita city on Tuesday.
Experts say Japan’s ageing and declining population in rural areas is amongst the explanations for the growing bear problem in recent times.
Abandoned neighbourhoods and farmland with persimmon or chestnut trees often attract bears to residential areas.
Once bears find food and acquire a taste, they keep coming back, experts say. Local hunters are also ageing and never used to bear hunting.
Experts say police and other authorities needs to be trained as ‘government hunters’ to assist cull the animals.
The federal government arrange a task force last week to create an official bear response by mid-November.
Officials are considering bear population surveys, using communication devices to issue bear warnings and revisions to hunting rules.
The shortage of preventive measures within the depopulated and ageing northern regions has also led to a rise within the populations of brown bears and Asiatic black bears, the ministry said.
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