Japan calls in the army to tackle deadly bears

11 hours ago 3

By Julian Ryall

October 29, 2025 — 5.11pm

The Japanese defence force is being mobilised to combat a growing population of aggressive bears in the country’s north after the body of a woman in her 80s was found in a ditch on the outskirts of Akita City on Monday.

She is one of 10 people killed by bears since April – surpassing last year’s national toll of six – adding to the 73 people injured or killed in Akita this month alone. The crisis has prompted governor Kenta Suzuki to appeal to the national government for assistance.

After a spate of deaths, Japan’s military has been mobilised to assist hunters to control the bear population.

“The lives of our citizens cannot be protected without the help of the Self-Defence Forces,” he told Japanese Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi. “Attacks targeting the neck and face are extremely common, resulting in a truly dire situation.”

Bears have been attacking tourists, entering shops and turning up near schools and parks across the country, particularly in the north.

Members of Japan’s Self-Defence Forces will be dispatched to assist local hunters. The military will provide logistical support, including setting box traps, transporting equipment and hunters around the prefecture, and disposing of euthanised bears. The defence ministry said the troops will not be armed and would not be involved in tracking or shooting bears.

There are fewer hunters in rural parts of the prefecture than there used to be, and they are overwhelmed by requests to track and kill bears, the governor said.

A brown bear runs on a field in Sapporo, northern Japan, in 2021. It was put down after entering a military camp and injuring four people.

Police said the woman who was killed this week had sustained severe injuries, and hunters were tracking a bear that had been seen nearby.

The death follows another bear attack in the area last week on a couple who were collecting fruit in the village of Higashinaruse. Two men working nearby came to help but were badly mauled, and one later died.

A sign warning golfers at a tournament in Miyagi about the risk of bears.

Kevin Short, a naturalist and former professor of cultural anthropology at Tokyo University of Information Sciences, said several factors lay behind the recent spike in bear incidents. He estimated there were about 44,000 Asian black bears on Honshu and a further 11,600 of the larger, more aggressive brown bears on Hokkaido.

“There have been poor beech nut crops in recent years, which means that bears have to forage further afield to get the food they need to get through hibernation,” he told The Telegraph.

“The rural parts of Japan have been experiencing depopulation for a long time as well and bears are just not as nervous around people as they used to be.”

Experts say warmer weather is also disrupting hibernation patterns. Brown bears can weigh about half a tonne and can outrun a human.

Japan has two bear species: Asian black bears (also called moon bears) and the larger brown bears found on the northern island of Hokkaido.

Prefectures with large bear populations have urged residents to take precautions, such as making loud noise to deter bears and not leaving food where wildlife can access it.

The Telegraph, London

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