Japan sends troops to help stop bear attacks
Bears have injured more than 100 people and killed 11 in Japan this year, a record. Now the government is preparing to send the military into one hard-hit area to help tackle the problem.
Troops will be sent to Akita prefecture in the mountains of northern Japan, the defense ministry announced Tuesday, to help set traps and dispose of dead bear carcasses. The troops requested by officials in Akita are not expected to kill any bears; this task will be left to the local hunters.
“Bears are appearing in supermarkets, and there is a possibility that a bear may be in front of your house when you wake up in the morning,” Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi told a news conference in Tokyo on Tuesday. “People live in great fear.”
Experts say the increase in attacks is partly a result of climate change, which has led to a shortage of foods such as beechnuts, a favorite snack for bears, in some areas. Japan’s population decline has also contributed to the problem, with bears venturing into rural areas that were once full of people.
The bear population – including the Asiatic black bear and brown bear – appears to be growing, with many wandering into residential areas, including the suburbs of Tokyo. Bear attacks often increase in October and November before the animals hibernate. In recent weeks there have been reports of bears breaking down school doors, running across train tracks and attacking a tourist at a bus stop. Iwate University in northern Japan recently canceled classes for two days after a bear was spotted on campus. In Akita, home to about 880,000 people, the problem is particularly acute. More than 50 people have been injured and two killed in bear attacks in the prefecture this year, including a 73-year-old woman who was attacked while taking out garbage and a 38-year-old man who was killed near a municipal office.
As late as Sunday, an 85-year-old farmer who lives in the town of Kazuno in Akita reported that she was attacked from behind while washing radishes.
The governor of Akita, Kenta Suzuki, visited Tokyo this week to ask for help from Japan’s military, called the Self-Defense Forces. He said the prefecture was setting box traps and promoting the use of sprays to repel bears. Hunters in the area are working but are exhausted, he said.
Suzuki wrote on social media that “the prefecture and municipalities can no longer handle the situation alone.”
“We understand that this will continue to be a source of concern for the people of the prefecture, and we ask that you continue to exercise caution,” Suzuki wrote on Instagram.
Japan has tried in recent years to train more hunters to help control the bear population, but hunters are aging and their ranks have thinned.
Japan has in the past called on its military to help deal with the animals, including a growing Ezo deer population on Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan’s main islands. Koizumi noted at a news conference that the law allows the military to transport dead animals, but does not appear to allow extermination. He added that Akita Prefecture had not asked for help hunting the bears.
Koizumi said the Defense Ministry will first send a group of army officers to Akita to develop a plan to deal with the increase in bear attacks before preparing box traps later. A typical trap has food inside that attracts the bears and an entrance that closes behind them to keep them inside. Hunters are then usually called in to exterminate.
Koizumi said it was important that the work did not interfere with other military missions.
“We must not allow the self-defense forces to be overburdened,” he said. “On the other hand, it is also clearly wrong to sit idly by and watch as the lives and livelihoods of the people and citizens of the prefecture are threatened.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.