Seven out of ten attacks take place in inhabited areas
A 38-year-old man died and three other people were seriously injured in a bear attack near the municipal office in Higashinaruse village, Akita Prefecture, northeastern Japan. The episode is only the latest in a series of incidents in a context of growing concern over the increase in reports of mammals in human-inhabited centers.
The alarm was raised on Friday morning after reports of several people being attacked and suffering injuries to their faces and bodies. According to local police, a couple in their seventies were working outdoors when they were attacked; two men who rushed to help them were also injured. At the scene, officers found three men and a woman on the ground, in serious condition, one of whom, a resident of the area, died. The hunters then shot down a bear that appeared nearby, but it was not confirmed whether it was the same animal responsible for the attack.
According to research conducted by NHK and the Forestry Research Institute, around 70% of attacks now take place in inhabited areas. Since the beginning of October, 66 people in 12 prefectures have been attacked, and four of these have lost their lives. Akita prefecture is the most affected with 27 cases, followed by Iwate, 10, and Fukushima with 8 incidents. Around 80% of the episodes are concentrated in the Tohoku region, in the north and north-east of the country. Experts link the increase in accidents to the lack of food in the forests, the abandonment of agricultural land and progressive rural depopulation, which favor the presence of bears near homes. Furthermore, in over half of the cases analysed, near the locations of the attacks there were food sources considered ‘attractive’ for the animals, such as rice paddies, chestnut groves or persimmon trees. Local authorities have invited the local population to maintain maximum caution, avoiding walking at dawn or at night and carrying bells and repellent sprays with them. It is also recommended to temporarily give up picking seasonal wild mushrooms and vegetables. The climate of alert also had repercussions in the cultural sector: the production of the thriller film “Higuma!!” (“Brown Bear!!”) preferred to announce the postponement of the preview, scheduled for the end of November, explaining that they wanted to wait “for a moment in which the public can enjoy the film in a more serene context”.
