AKITA, Nov 16 (News On Japan) - A reporting team found itself face to face with a bear while investigating the sharp rise in bear-related incidents that has left 13 people dead this year.
There is an unmistakable shift in bear behavior, with encounters occurring directly inside residential areas including one high school compound in Akita City and, on another occasion, atop a persimmon tree behind a private home, prompting locals to say this year is unlike anything they have seen.
As sightings come in from multiple locations, police, the Self-Defense Forces, local hunting associations, and municipal officials have had to mobilize repeatedly, sustaining a tense atmosphere in affected districts. Some residents have voiced fear and frustration as the incidents continue. Reporters pressed on with on-site investigations to understand what exactly is unfolding.
While traveling toward an airport in Akita City, the crew’s camera captured the moment they encountered a bear. They immediately retreated into their vehicle for safety. Behind a house stood a persimmon tree where the animal had climbed up to feed, calmly chewing fruit despite noticing human presence. The bear was spotted about 10 kilometers from Akita Station, right beside a national highway and rows of homes — unmistakably within a residential zone, and one of many cases where bears have appeared in search of persimmons. Surveys indicate that roughly 70% of bears entering inhabited areas are drawn by the fruit.
The bear continued feeding for more than 20 minutes as concerned residents looked on. Fifty minutes after the crew’s call, police arrived. Officers warned: “We are going to make a loud noise to drive it away. Please stay inside your homes.” Firecrackers were thrown beneath the tree; the bear reacted, descended, and ran in the direction of the reporters’ car, prompting them to shut the windows as it approached. It eventually turned toward the mountain and fled. No one was harmed, but experts warn that even smaller bears can inflict significant injuries. Nationwide deaths caused by bears have already reached 13 this fiscal year, the highest on record.
Footage from last year shows how violent an encounter can become. A mushroom hunter was attacked repeatedly when a bear suddenly appeared, clawing and biting him during a frantic 20-second struggle recorded by a camera attached to his headlamp. The victim, Sato, said he had been collecting maitake mushrooms when a bear and cub approached. “I thought it was over. We were only ten meters apart, and it had entered a fighting stance,” he recalled. He struck the animal with a stick, hitting it squarely on the nose, but it continued charging. He suffered bites and claw wounds. Sato now enters the mountains wearing a helmet, saying, “The first attack always comes for the head. A helmet is essential.”
Pets are also at risk. At one home, a bear dragged away a doghouse with a large dog inside. The owner said she heard frantic barking on a Tuesday evening and saw the bear pulling the doghouse toward the forest. The dog, a four-year-old Shiba named Tama, was carried off; only her collar was later found.
From here the focus turns to analysis. Why have bear incidents reached unprecedented levels? To explore the underlying causes, researchers walked through a bear-affected area in Morioka City with Yamauchi, who has studied bear ecology for more than 20 years. He noted fresh bear droppings and numerous chestnut and oak trees, explaining that this spot likely serves as a regular autumn feeding ground. Yet this year, bears have been venturing even deeper into residential districts.
As of late October, Iwate Prefecture had already logged 7,608 sightings — surpassing last year’s figure, which was itself the highest in five years. Yamauchi said, “Bears used to flee immediately at the sound of a car. Now we see individuals that are no longer afraid of people at all. In some regions, it feels like humans are being disregarded.”
Postmortem examinations show signs of hunger. One bear dissected last week had almost nothing in its stomach and very little body fat. “There must be almost no food in the mountains,” he said. Poor availability of acorns was also seen last year, yet the surge in sightings is even more pronounced this year. Specialists point to memory and learning: during the major crop failure two years ago, an unusually large number of bears descended into populated areas in search of food. Cubs that learned that towns contain “easy meals” are now growing and passing that behavior on, accelerating the trend.
Signs that the usual behavioral patterns no longer apply are appearing. Footage from late December last year in Akita Prefecture shows a bear feeding beneath a persimmon tree in deep winter — a time when they would usually be hibernating. A resident, Ishikawa, who filmed the animal after noticing his dog barking, said he had never seen a bear in winter in all his years living there. Persimmons from his tree were stripped away earlier in the season; he removed the remaining fruit to avoid attracting further visits. Ishikawa said, “I always kept a respectful distance from bears, so I didn’t think of them as particularly dangerous. But with attacks happening, we need to control their numbers to some extent.”
To determine whether bears still lingered nearby, a drone equipped with infrared imaging was flown around Ishikawa’s home with the cooperation of the Akita Drone Association, which is contracted by national and local governments for bear searches. The survey began at 4:30 p.m., and about an hour later, a heat signature resembling a bear was detected. It moved slowly through the forest, eating something. Further scans uncovered a second bear in a rice field roughly 300 meters from houses — only one kilometer from central residential zones.
Ishikawa, stunned, said, “This used to be one of my walking routes. Now it’s far too dangerous.”
Experts stress that accurately understanding bear populations and implementing proper management is crucial. “We need to adjust numbers so they don’t enter towns and ensure forests are maintained so wildlife can survive in their natural habitats. Coordinated efforts across prefectures — surveys, capture programs, and other measures — are essential,” Yamauchi said. Currently, such efforts remain limited, and he warns progress will be slow unless the Environment Ministry takes a leading role.
During on-the-ground reporting, it became evident that keeping bears away from inhabited zones is a central challenge. Specialists warn that once a bear succeeds in finding food in a residential area, it will return. Three days after the reporters encountered the persimmon-feeding bear, a black bear was captured nearby; whether it was the same animal remains unknown. With persimmon trees abundant across Akita Prefecture, sightings continue to pour in. In response, the tree where the reporters spotted the bear was cut down, and other communities have begun removing fruit before it ripens to deter bears.
New technologies are emerging as a key part of mitigation efforts. In Toyama City, AI-connected cameras installed in areas with past attacks automatically detect bears using image recognition trained on roughly 60,000 images of bears, deer, monkeys, and boars. When the system determines there is a 99% probability that the footage shows a bear, it triggers alerts through the city’s disaster-prevention broadcast network within about three minutes — a reduction of more than 30 minutes compared to traditional verification processes. The cameras have captured bears six times in the past month.
Authorities hope that early detection, faster warnings, and reduced on-site confirmation work will help communities respond more quickly as Japan faces its worst bear crisis on record.
Source: YOMIURI
