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Julian Ryall

A Russian hiker was seriously injured in the mountainous west of Tokyo on Sunday morning, raising fears that Japan could be heading for another record year of human-bear encounters.
Police said a bear attacked the man as he was hiking along a forest road near Mount Sanukido, close to the town of Okutama.
The man, who has not been named, sustained severe injuries to his face and arms and was airlifted by helicopter to a hospital in Hachioji city. His injuries were not life-threatening.
The attack has added to rising concern in Japan over bears appearing in places where they had rarely been seen before – from suburban streets and school neighbourhoods to festival venues and shopping areas.

“Bears are clearly expanding their habitats into areas in the vicinity of human residential areas,” said Hifumi Tsuruga, a bear expert at the Hokkaido Research Organisation in Sapporo.
There are several possible reasons for bears’ increased willingness to extend their ranges.
“One factor is that there are far fewer hunters active in areas that have bears than in the past, so there is less pressure on them,” he said.


“Also, in the Tohoku area of northern Japan, there are many persimmon trees in local residents’ gardens, and once a bear finds persimmons, they will come back again and again.”
However, he declined to express an opinion on whether the bears were becoming less afraid of humans than in the past.
Population increase
There has been a sharp increase in the bear population in Hokkaido, according to Tsuruga. An estimated 11,600 brown bears currently roam the prefecture, nearly double that from 30 years ago.
That may create competition for territory and food, particularly in autumn, before the bears enter hibernation, and then again in spring, when they emerge hungry.
Residents of the Hachioji district of western Tokyo are on edge, according to the Tokyo MX news site, after an Asian black bear was caught on closed-circuit cameras in a residential district close to a junior school in late April. Parents have been asked to accompany children to and from school and the local government is setting up traps and organising patrols of hunters.
Security was also stepped up for the two-day Sendai Aoba Festival over the weekend after several bear sightings in Nishi Park, the main venue for one of the largest annual festivals in Miyagi prefecture.
Five days earlier, a pair of bears were spotted on the banks of a nearby river. Security guards were brought in to patrol the venue, rubbish was quickly disposed of and speakers were set up to emit a tone that bears dislike.

On Friday, local police and hunters shot and killed a bear that had strayed into a shopping complex just 500 metres (1,600 feet) from the offices of the Aomori prefectural government in northern Japan.
The first fatal bear attack of the year was on April 21, when authorities found the body of a 55-year-old woman who had gone into the forest to pick edible wild plants in Shiwa town, Iwate prefecture. A 69-year-old woman was similarly found dead on May 7 in the same prefecture.
At least 11 other individuals have been injured in attacks in six prefectures since the start of April, according to national broadcaster NHK, with the majority encountering bears in woodlands. The Environment Ministry is recommending that people travel in groups, carry radios to report sightings and ring bells to warn bears of their presence.
In the 2025 financial year that ended in March, there were more than 50,000 bear sightings across Japan and a record 238 attacks that resulted in injury, with 13 fatalities. Sightings so far this year are also higher than in previous years and experts fear it could be another record-setting year for incidents.


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Russian hiker becomes Japan’s latest bear attack victim as another grim record looms

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East Asia

After a year with more than 50,000 sightings and 238 injuries, Japan’s vanishing hunting communities are struggling to contain the problem


After a year with more than 50,000 sightings and 238 injuries, Japan’s vanishing hunting communities are struggling to contain the problem.


Animals

Tokyo

Russian hiker becomes Japan’s latest bear attack victim as another grim record looms

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}After a year with more than 50,000 sightings and 238 injuries, Japan’s vanishing hunting communities are struggling to contain the problem

After a year with more than 50,000 sightings and 238 injuries, Japan’s vanishing hunting communities are struggling to contain the problem