A special unit has been set up within the Japanese Ministry of the Environment to combat the increasing frequency of bears entering busy urban areas. Its representatives will work closely with local authorities where these animals appear most often, the Kyodo news agency reported.
The plan is to cooperate with the police to train officers in quick-response techniques when seeing bears in urban areas, as well as to prepare the public accordingly. During the training, people will learn how to properly use special aerosol cans in case of an encounter with the predators.
Bear sightings have increased in northeastern Japan, including in the Tokyo area. Tokyo police have already set up a special armed unit to combat them, which is quickly deployed when bears are spotted.
In early June, in the very center of Utsunomiya, a city of over 511,000 people, located 130 km from Tokyo, all schools were closed for several days due to the appearance of a bear on the streets. It even wandered into large shopping malls. In April, a bear was spotted near residential buildings in the Tokyo suburb of Hachioji. In June, the animal entered the same house four times a week in search of food.
In Japan, in the fiscal year 2025 (ending March 31, 2026), bears were spotted dangerously close to people or settlements nearly 58,000 times. This is an all-time high since such statistics were first compiled in 2009. In the 12 months ending in March this year, 13 people died in bear attacks in Japan. A total of 238 residents were injured or maimed - the highest number since the war.