Japan has deployed troops to help counter a surge of bear attacks that have terrified residents in a mountainous region in the northern prefecture of Akita.
In the last seven months, at least 12 people have been killed and more than 100 injured in bear attacks across Japan, according to Ministry of the Environment statistics at the end of October.
The military move on Wednesday comes as these reports of sometimes deadly encounters with brown bears and Asiatic black bears are being documented almost daily before hibernation season, as the bears forage for food. They have been seen near schools, train stations, supermarkets and at a hot springs resort.
The growing bear population’s encroachment into residential areas is happening in a region with a rapidly ageing and declining human population, with few people trained to hunt the animals. The government has estimated the overall bear population at more than 54,000.
Soldiers, however, will not open fire on the bears after the Ministry of Defense and Akita prefecture signed an agreement Wednesday that troops will set box traps with food, transport local hunters and help dispose of dead bears.
“Every day, bears intrude into residential areas in the region and their impact is expanding,” Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Fumitoshi Sato told reporters. “Responses to the bear problem are an urgent matter.”
The operation began in a forested area in Kazuno city, where a number of bear sightings and injuries have been reported. White-helmeted soldiers wearing bulletproof vests and carrying bear spray and net launchers set up a bear trap near an orchard.
Takahiro Ikeda, an orchard operator, said bears have eaten more than 200 of his apples that were ready for harvest. “My heart is broken,” he told NHK television.
Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said Tuesday the bear mission aims to help secure people’s daily lives, but that service members’ primary mission is national defence and they cannot provide unlimited support for the bear response.
In Akita prefecture, which has a population of about 880,000, bears have attacked more than 50 people since May, killing at least four, according to the local government, with most attacks occurring in residential areas.
An older woman who went mushroom hunting in the forest was found dead in an apparent attack over the weekend in Yuzawa city. Another older woman in Akita city was killed after encountering a bear while working on a farm in late October. A newspaper deliveryman was attacked and injured in Akita city on Tuesday.
Experts say Japan’s ageing and declining population in rural areas is one reason for the growing problem. They say the bears are not endangered and need culling to keep the population under control.
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