Japan has recently employed its military to put a stop to an increasingly frequent number of bear attacks taking place throughout the country, especially in the northerly Akita prefecture. The region formally requested assistance from the country’s military because local measures were stretched far too thin, overwhelming authorities.
Sightings and attacks from both Asiatic and brown bears have increased preceding their hibernation, as the bears wander into residential areas to forage for food. According to Japan’s Environment Ministry, since April, a population of around 54,000 bears has killed 13 people and injured upwards of 100.
“Every day, bears intrude into residential areas in the region and their impact is expanding,” Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Fumitoshi Sato reported. He emphasized a quick reply to the bear issue. “Responses to the bear problem are an urgent matter.”
The rise in attacks in recent years has been attributed to a number of factors, including Japan’s aging population. The older population has been declining, depopulating residential areas and allowing bears to slowly fill the space.
Furthermore, only a small number of people are trained and licensed hunters, and the few that remain are getting older. Hunting restrictions and conservation efforts have reduced the removal of the bear population, furthering their expansion.
Additionally, the bears are facing lower harvests for their traditional sources of food, like acorns. Climate change has disrupted the pollination of many flowering plants, leading to poor yields for plants vital to the bears’ diets. As a result, bears tend to find alternate sources of food leading up to hibernation season, moving into residential areas to scavenge for human leftovers.
Ikeda Takahiro, a fruit farmer, has been a victim to the bears. More than 3000 of his peaches and hundreds more of his apples have been eaten by the bears. “My heart is already broken. This is really out of the ordinary, and I don’t know what to do,” Takahiro told NHK.
Buddhist culture, prevalent in Japan, makes a point to respect life. This causes tension between humans and bears when attacks ramp up. Many advocate for killing the bears, but some conservation groups oppose this, or suggest that authorities use non-lethal methods to contain the bear population.
The Defense Ministry of Japan, conscious of public perception, has ordered that soldiers not open fire on the bears. Alternatively, the military has been tasked with setting out traps with food in them and aiding local hunters by providing transportation. That being said, the troops have been armed with bear spray and bulletproof vests.
These local hunters, though, are in decline along with the population. Many have advocated that the government intervene and train local authorities to become hunters to cull the bears.
