Bears cause the most damage in Japan, causing shock throughout the country. Upgrade to see the full report.
Sunagawa City, Japan
—
Haruo Ikegami’s day begins at dawn.
As the sun shines through the darkness of the small Hokkaido town, the 76-year-old pulls on rain boots and a bright orange jacket. This is his uniform, he said.
He picked up his walkie-talkie, trudged across the frost-covered yard and got into a green van with a sticker that read “On Bear Patrol.” His car is easily recognizable here. On the drive, neighbors stop by and ask about things they’ve recently witnessed.
Mr. Ikegami is, in a sense, something of a local hero in this rural town. Having killed dozens of bears over his 40-year career, he sees his job as a vital line of defense between the town and the increasingly unpredictable wilderness.
“If not for me, who else can save this town?” he said.
The metal cages he set up are dotted around Sunagawa, each topped with a slab of deer meat as bait, and placed in areas where bears have been sighted this year. The day we accompanied him, his traps were empty. But he warns that bears are never far away and are increasingly encroaching on human territory, scaring the people who live here.
“People are dying. This is a murder case,” Hunter told CNN.
At least 13 people have been killed and more than 200 injured in bear encounters this year. Videos of bears roaming the aisles of supermarkets, roaming school grounds and picking persimmons in suburban backyards have gone viral on social media in Japan. Some schools have also been temporarily closed, and residents in some areas of northern Japan are refraining from going out after dark.
The crisis caused nationwide alarm. Japan’s defense minister has dispatched the Self-Defense Forces to the hard-hit areas, and lawmakers are scrambling to find a long-term solution. The U.S. and British embassies also issued advisories for travelers to the region.
But for hunters, the crisis is both frightening and predictable.
“There are too many bears right now. It’s an emergency situation,” Ikegami said.
Japan’s bear population is rapidly increasing, but the number of licensed hunters is plummeting.
Currently, more than one-third of Japan’s population is over 65 years old, and rural towns are shrinking. Few young residents remain, and even fewer are active in hunting, Ikegami said. This dangerous work pays poorly and has little appeal compared to life in a city like Tokyo.
“If the government had seriously tackled this problem sooner, it wouldn’t have been this bad,” bear hunter Jun Kanno, 37, told CNN. “It is nonsense that they would respond now only after the situation has escalated.”
There are several factors contributing to the surge in encounters.
One is just a number. The population of Hokkaido brown bears, one of Japan’s two types of bears, has more than doubled in the past 30 years, with nearly 12,000 now roaming the country’s northernmost prefecture. The stocky cousin of the grizzly bear can reach around 7 feet tall and is found only in Hokkaido.
The other species, the Asian black bear, is even smaller, reaching about 5.5 feet in length. However, deadly attacks have also occurred, particularly in northern areas such as Akita and Iwate.
Experts say climate change is another factor. Due to poor nut and fruit crops, bears are looking elsewhere for food.
“When bears are short on food, they have to find food. I think they are one step closer to human settlements,” bear conservationist Hiroo Tamaya told CNN.
Japan’s demographic changes are also complicating the problem. Rural towns and farmland once formed a natural buffer between deep forests and populated areas. But when these areas become empty, bears move in to take advantage of the new real estate.
Currently, Japan’s main response to bears that attack people or enter residential areas is to kill them.
The government revised the law to make it easier for riot police to use firearms. However, the Self-Defense Forces are legally prohibited from using weapons except in cases related to national defense, and hunters like Ikegami are placed on the front lines.
He trains young hunters, but few have the skill or confidence to take down animals weighing hundreds of pounds. At the same time, they regularly receive angry calls asking them not to kill the bears.
“We cannot coexist as long as we live here,” he said.
Ikegami added, “Life is precious to us. No one would say that a bear’s life is more important than their own.”
Bear hunter Katsuo Harada has a similar opinion. At 84 years old, he still goes hunting, but his two disciples are primarily in charge of fortifying the boundaries between the forest and residential areas.
Mr. Harada also knows firsthand how powerful these bears are. More than 20 years ago, he was nearly killed by a bear while deer hunting.
“I fired two shots, but the bear didn’t stop. The bear climbed on top of me, took the gun out of my hands, and bit me in the head,” he told CNN.
“My eyes and ears were dangling,” he said.
In the confusion, he forced his fist into the bear’s throat, cutting off the airway just long enough for the bullet to take effect. Harada says he remembers little of what happened afterward, as his consciousness went in and out. But he remembers reaching for his walkie-talkie and calling the friends he was hunting with for help.
He keeps the bear skull as a reminder of how quickly positions can turn from hunter to hunted.
Public opinion largely supports culling. Many people in Japan are now afraid to hike or travel to prefectures where recent attacks have occurred, preferring to visit “bear-free prefectures” where bear populations are unknown.
But conservationists warn against mass killings.
“Instead of killing everyone, we need to identify what is causing the problem and address each one,” Tamaya said.
He works for a nonprofit called Picchio, which uses dogs to deter bears and tag them to track their movements. Tamaya also advocates planting bear food trees away from residential areas, so they can access natural resources further away from town.
Although repeat offenders may still be weeded out, he argues these measures will reduce unnecessary deaths.
“Bears are not monsters. They are living animals just like us.”
Japan continues to seek solutions that protect human life while allowing wildlife to survive.
“Humans and animals have coexisted for a long time. Sometimes we hurt each other, but we still have to respect and accept each other,” Togen Yoshiwara, a monk who was attacked by a bear in May, told CNN.
Yoshiwara said he survived because his dog, Chico, chased the bear away by barking. He escaped with only minor injuries, but the experience haunts him, and he now carries a chisel with him when he walks through the woods.
Japan is now at a crossroads. The country is torn between fear and a desire to coexist with bears, an important part of Japan’s ecosystem.
But until a lasting solution emerges, more lives, both human and animal, will pay the price.
