Japan to beef up measures to control bear population amid record fatalities
Japan will take tougher measures to control its population of bears, its environment minister said Friday after recent record fatalities from bear attacks, Kyodo reports.
Japan designated bears as a species for population control in April 2024, but sightings and attacks have surged, with seven people killed already in the current fiscal year starting April.
"We will strengthen our bear population control measures based on scientific data," Environment Minister Keiichiro Asao said at a press conference.
He urged people to heed local information about bear sightings provided by municipalities.
In Iwate Prefecture, northeastern Japan, a 60-year-old man went missing on Thursday after an apparent bear attack, with bloodstains and animal fur later found around an outdoor bath of a Japanese-style inn which he was cleaning.
Bears have been also spotted at tourist spots. In early October, a Spanish male tourist was attacked by a bear cub and sustained a minor injury to his arm in the scenic mountain village of Shirakawa, part of a World Heritage site in central Japan.
Japan in September relaxed its rules on killing bears that intrude into populated areas, allowing local municipalities to approve "emergency shootings."
The northeastern city of Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture became the first local entity earlier this week to shoot a bear under the new rule.
