The bears are in the streets. They are on the sidewalks of rural roads. They are on airport runways. And they are attacking humans in record numbers, according to a flurry of warnings from the Japanese government.
Bears in Japan have killed at least 13 people and injured more than 180 this year, prompting foreign governments to issue warnings and Japanese officials to deploy troops and authorize police officers to shoot the animals.
This year’s fatalities mark the highest number of deaths in a single year since at least 1980. The previous record deaths from bear attacks was six in 2023, according to government tallies.
“A woman tending to her garden and a man getting into his car were attacked in Akita prefecture,” the Asahi Shimbun said in an editorial last month. “In Gunma prefecture, a bear entered a supermarket … and in Iwate prefecture, a man was killed while cleaning an open-air onsen.”
A declining human population in rural areas, combined with a growing bear population and a poor harvest of a key food source this year, is likely behind the increase in bear attacks, experts say.
The unusual spike in bear attacks prompted the U.S. State Department to issue a rare warning for Americans in Japan. Last week, it asked U.S. citizens in the country to be bear aware.
“Bear sightings and attacks have increased in parts of Japan, especially in municipalities close to or adjacent to populated zones,” the U.S. Embassy in Japan said in the wildlife alert issued Nov. 12.
Authorities closed a park in the northern city of Sapporo over bear activity, and the animals have been spotted in other residential areas in Hokkaido and Akita prefectures, the embassy said.
The governments of Canada, China, the Philippines, South Korea and the United Kingdom have issued similar warnings to their citizens, asking them to watch out for bears when traveling in Japan.
Japan’s declining population — especially in rural areas — has led to a doubling of the range of bear habitats, said Shinsuke Koike, a professor at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, who studies Asiatic black bears. As human populations decline, bears venture out into wider swaths of territory, closer to human settlements, according to Koike.
“Bears living in such conditions have likely become less wary of humans,” he said in an email.
The three prefectures with the highest number of bear attacks this year, up until October — Iwate, Akita and Fukushima — saw their populations decline faster than the rest of Japan from 2020 to 2024.
Another reason behind this year’s increase is that there has been a poor acorn harvest in northern Japan, where bears are common, he said. This changes bear behavior, “causing them to move around a wider area. Bears that may already be less wary of humans may be … attracted by unharvested persimmons and chestnuts in human settlements,” Koike said.
Japan, which has a land mass roughly the size of Montana, has a dense bear population, which the government says is likely growing.
Japanese officials say the country has about 12,000 brown bears, which are related to the North American grizzly bear and can reach a height of 6 feet 6 inches and weigh up to 880 pounds. It also has 42,000 Asiatic black bears, which can grow up to 4 feet 3 inches in height and weigh up to 286 pounds, officials say. Montana, by comparison, has a few thousand grizzlies and 13,000 black bears, state estimates show.
But the bear population is highly skewed. In some parts of Japan, such as Shikoku, one of Japan’s four main islands, “only 20-30 [black bears] remain,” Koike said. “They are on the verge of extinction.”
Japanese authorities have plans to implement a pan-government plan aimed at reducing the bear population and segregating bears from human settlements.
Authorities have already deployed troops to Akita prefecture, one of the most heavily hit localities in northern Honshu, Japan’s most populous main island, after local officials there requested a military presence in their region last month. A small contingent of 15 army soldiers has since been assisting hunters in setting up box traps, according to local news media.
Across Japan, police officers will be authorized to shoot bears, while more cage traps and electric fences will be set up near human population centers. In Gifu prefecture, authorities have prepared drones that can emit dog-barking noises.
“Everyone is probably tired from the constant state of danger,” one woman in Japan said, according to Japan’s Asahi Television. “It might be worse than the coronavirus [pandemic].”
Jintak Han in Seoul contributed to this report.
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