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In northern Japan, especially parts of Kita-Akita, a deep sense of unease has taken root. Locals have started attaching bells to their bags, believing that the jangling noise will scare away bears, while warning signs line the forests, reminding people to stay vigilant. Since April, bear attacks have claimed a record 13 lives nationwide, with frequent reports of bears trespassing into homes, scaring children near schools, and destroying goods in supermarkets.
Kakeru Matsuhashi, a 28-year-old traditional “Matagi” hunter, described walking through a forest, clutching a knife, and hearing news almost daily about attacks or injuries. “It feels personal now, and honestly, it’s terrifying,” he said, referencing Akita, a prefecture hit hard by these incidents. The death toll this year has already doubled the previous high from 2023-24, even with five months left in the fiscal year.
The data from certain regions is incomplete, but Japan has consistently recorded some of the highest numbers of fatal bear attacks worldwide in recent years. In 2023, a bear leapt from a garage, pinning 68-year-old Keiji Minatoya to the ground and biting his face, leaving him thinking, “This is how I die.” Fortunately, he managed to escape and find safety inside his house.
To combat the rising threat, authorities are mobilizing resources to trap and hunt bears. Riot police will now be authorized to use rifles to shoot the animals, which can weigh up to half a ton and are capable of outrunning humans. In one recent attack, a hunter shot a bear near a house in Iwate, a neighboring region, after finding the victim’s body with bite marks and scars. Another incident involved a man, age 60, who was attacked while cleaning an outdoor hot spring bath; he was later found dead in nearby woods. Over 100 people have been injured in the first half of this year alone.
The surge in bear numbers is a core issue. Experts attribute this rapid growth to an abundance of food, including acorns, deer, and boars, driven by a warming climate. Japan’s brown bear population has doubled in the past three decades, totaling around 12,000, while the Asian black bear on Honshu has grown to approximately 42,000. Some mountain regions are now considered “overcrowded,” according to forest research specialists, who warn that the mountains can no longer sustain the rising populations.
This year’s poor acorn harvest, similar to 2023, has led bears—including their cubs—to stray into towns in search of sustenance. With less fear of humans, cubs develop a taste for farm produce and common fruits like persimmons. Furthermore, declining rural populations, due to low birthrates and urban migration, have reduced human presence at the forest edges, increasing overlap between bear habitats and human settlements. As Naoki Ohnishi from the Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute notes, bear habitats have inched closer to human areas — and this year, that proximity has further increased.
This ongoing escalation has turned into a disaster. Hajime Nakae, a professor of emergency medicine at Akita University Hospital, describes the situation as akin to living inside a “safari park for bears,” explaining that the nature of attacks is changing. Bears are becoming more aggressive, charging from about 10 meters and leaping at people, rather than startling and fleeing. Without decisive action, Nakae warns that the number of injuries and incidents could spike nationwide, describing the current state as a “disaster.”
Experts advocate for thorough culling of the bear population as the most effective way to safeguard communities. Last year, the government removed protection status for bears, allowing for more active control. Despite the challenges posed by limited resources and a shrinking pool of hunters—most of whom are over 60—the government culled over 9,000 bears in 2023-2024, including more than 1,000 in Akita this year. To prepare for winter, the bears are expected to go into hibernation soon, which might temporarily ease the situation.
There’s a clear recognition that this is a complex crisis rooted in ecological and societal changes. The combination of rising bear numbers, shifting forests, and less human presence has set the stage for continued conflicts unless comprehensive measures are implemented.
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