Japan deploys the military to counter a surge in bear attacks : NPR

Members of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force and others set a trap to capture bears in Kazuno in Akita Prefecture in northern Japan on Wednesday.

Muneyoshi Someya/Kyodo News via AP

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Muneyoshi Someya/Kyodo News via AP

TOKYO — Japan deployed troops Wednesday to help contain a wave of bear attacks that have terrorized residents of a mountainous region in the country’s northern Akita prefecture.

Reports of sometimes fatal encounters with Asian brown bears and black bears come almost daily before the hibernation season, as the bears search for food. They were seen near schools, train stations, supermarkets and in a spa.

Since April, more than 100 people have been injured and at least 12 killed in bear attacks across Japan, according to Environment Ministry statistics from late October.

The growing bear population invasion of residential areas is occurring in a region where the human population is rapidly aging and declining, and few people are trained to hunt the animals.

The government estimates the total bear population at more than 54,000 individuals.

The soldiers will not open fire

The Defense Ministry and Akita Prefecture signed an agreement Wednesday to deploy soldiers who will set traps containing food, transport local hunters and help dispose of dead bears. Authorities say troopers will not use firearms to shoot the bears.

“Every day, bears enter residential areas in the region and their impact is expanding,” Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Fumitoshi Sato told reporters. “There is an urgent need to address the bear problem.”

The operation began in a wooded area in the town of Kazuno, where a number of bears were seen and injured. Soldiers wearing white helmets, body armor and carrying bear spray and net throwers set a bear trap near an orchard.

Takahiro Ikeda, an orchard operator, said the bears ate more than 200 of his apples ready for harvest. “My heart is broken,” he told NHK television.

Akita Governor Kenta Suzuki said local authorities were “desperate” due to a lack of manpower.

Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said Tuesday that the Bear mission aims to help secure people’s daily lives, but the military’s primary mission is national defense and it cannot provide unlimited support for the Bear response. The Japanese Self-Defense Forces are already understaffed.

In this photo provided by the Japan Self-Defense Forces Akita Camp, members of the Self-Defense Forces unload a bear cage from a military truck at the JSDF Akita Camp in Akita, northern Japan, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025.

Camp AP/JSDF in Akita

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Camp AP/JSDF in Akita

The ministry has not received any requests for help from other prefectures to solve the bear problem, he said.

Most attacks in residential areas

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. Experts say most attacks took place in residential areas.

An elderly woman who went mushroom hunting in the forest was found dead in an apparent attack over the weekend in the town of Yuzawa. Another elderly woman in Akita City was killed after encountering a bear while working on a farm in late October. A newspaper delivery man was attacked and injured in the city of Akita on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, a resident of the town of Akita spotted two bears on a persimmon tree in her garden. She was inside and filmed the bears as they walked around for about 30 minutes. She told a local TV station that the bears at one point appeared to want to enter the room she was in, and she moved away from the window.

Abandoned neighborhoods and farmland planted with persimmon or chestnut trees often attract bears to residential areas. Once bears find food, they keep coming back, experts say.

A call to train more hunters

Experts say the aging and decline of Japan’s rural population is one reason the problem is getting worse. They say the bears are not endangered and must be culled to keep the population under control.

Local hunters are also getting older and not used to hunting bear. Experts say police and other authorities should be trained as “government hunters” to help cull the animals.

The government established a task force last week to create an official response to the bears by mid-November. Officials are considering surveys of the bear population, using communications devices to issue bear warnings and revising hunting rules.

The lack of preventive measures in the northern regions has led to an increase in the bear population, the ministry said.