Japan relaxes bear-shooting laws amid rise in attacks | Japan

Japan is to relax its strict hunting laws to make it easier to shoot bears, amid a rise in dangerous encounters with the animals in built-up areas as their numbers increase and their natural habitat dwindles.

The government will revise wildlife protection and management laws to give local councils the power to authorise hunters to carry out “emergency shootings” when bears are spotted in populated neighbourhoods, the Kyodo news agency reported.

The planned revision, which will take effect from next year, is designed to make it easier for licensed hunters to respond to bear sightings. Currently, police approve emergency shootings only when they believe the animals pose a threat to human life.

Authorities in parts of northern Japan are struggling to address the rising number of sightings of bears forced to leave their natural habitat in search of food. Encounters between bears and residents of towns and cities are becoming more commonplace, as the animals become increasingly adventurous, apparently unfazed by close contact with humans.

A record 219 serious incidents, including six deaths, were reported in Japan in the year to March, while more than 9,000 black and brown bears were trapped and culled over that period, according to the environment ministry.

Experts attribute the rise in attacks to a scarcity of acorns and other staples of the ursine diet – a problem some experts have attributed to the climate crisis. They have also been encouraged to travel further afield by depopulation in rural communities and the resulting increase in abandoned farmland.

Japan’s bear population is growing, with an estimate by the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper putting the number of Asiatic black bears at 44,000, compared with 15,000 estimated in 2012. The estimate does not include Hokkaido, thought to be home to just under 12,000 Ussuri brown bears – a threefold increase since 2012.

Japan is also suffering from a shrinking, ageing community of hunters, who must abide by strict gun laws and pay for ammunition and rifle storage.

Authorities issued more than 517,800 hunting licences in 1975, according to official data, but the number had plummeted by more than half to 218,500 in 2020, when about 60% of licence-holders were aged 60 or over. About 98% of those issued in 1975 were for shooting, but that figure had dropped to 42% in 2020. The remaining licences were for trapping.

In recent years, police have been called in response to bear sightings in built-up areas, but current laws prohibit hunting with firearms in residential areas or public spaces such as shopping centres and railway stations. A police officer present at the scene must also give permission before a hunter can discharge their weapon.

This month a bear attacked a supermarket employee in the northern prefecture of Akita before holing up inside the store for almost three days. It was exterminated after being caught in a trap.

Akita was the scene of two high-profile incidents last year, including one in which a man lost part of an ear after finding a bear in his garage, and another in which several people were mauled at a bus stop.

There were more than 200 sightings in the Tokyo metropolitan region in the 12 months to April, according to authorities, which estimate the capital and its surroundings are home to between 100 and 200 black bears.

Reuters contributed reporting.