How Japan is fighting back against a surge of bear attacks

Experts say Japan’s bear population — which includes at least 12,000 brown bears on Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan’s main islands — is growing even as the rural population ages and declines, giving bears more space to roam and fewer people to scare them.

A shortage of nuts and other staple foods for bear diets – a shortage caused in part by climate change – is also drawing the animals out of the forests and mountains where they live and into residential areas.

Most of the attacks were carried out by smaller Asian black bears and took place in Akita Prefecture, now on the front lines of the crisis.

Two years ago, Keiji Minatoya, a baker, was attacked by a bear in the garage behind his candy store in the town of Kita-Akita.

The attack, which lasted about two minutes, left his face covered in blood and his forehead split open, exposing his skull. The bear had bitten him several times and scratched his back.

“Also, my earlobe was ripped off and it still hurts,” Minatoya, 68, said. “So even though I don’t want to remember the attack, I still remember it, because I feel the pain every day.”

Minatoya has not reopened his store since the attack because, he says, his wife is too fearful. Instead, he delivers his baked goods to stores around town for sale.

Since Minatoya’s experience, the attacks have only increased. Hunters, riot police and even the military have been deployed, using drones that bark like dogs, honey-filled traps and even mechanical wolves to keep the bears at bay.

Brown and black bears were added to a government list of “controlled animals” last year, and recent changes to emergency rules allow them to be shot by police, but not by the military.

For safety, some residents wear bells or alarms and whistles when they go out. Others choose to stay indoors.