These bears and these humans cannot coexist. And things are getting deadly

‘On Bear Patrol’: Inside Japan’s Response to Rise in Deadly Bear Attacks

Haruo Ikegami starts every day at dawn.

As soon as sunlight breaks the darkness over his small town in Hokkaido, the 76-year-old puts on his rubber boots and dons a fluorescent orange coat. It’s your uniform, he tells me.

After picking up the walkie-talkies, he struggles through the frost-covered garden and gets into a green van, decorated with stickers that read “on bear patrol”. The vehicle is immediately recognizable here. Along the way, neighbors call him, asking about recent sightings.

Ikegami is something of a local hero in this rural community. Over a 40-year career, he has killed dozens of bears and sees his work as a crucial line of defense between the city and increasingly unpredictable nature.

“Without me”, he asks, “who would save this city?”

The metal cages he set up are spread across the city of Sunagawa, each trapped with pieces of deer meat and placed in places where bears have been spotted this year. On the day we accompany him, the traps are empty. But he warns that the bears are never far away, moving deeper and deeper into human territory and scaring those who live here.

“People are dying. This is a case of homicide,” the hunter tells CNN.

This year, at least 13 people have died and more than 200 have been injured in encounters with bears. Videos of bears scouring supermarket aisles, roaming school grounds and picking up persimmons in suburban backyards have gone viral on Japanese social media. Some schools have also temporarily closed, while residents in parts of northern Japan avoid going out after dark.

The crisis generated national alarm. Japan’s defense minister has deployed the Self-Defense Forces to the most affected regions, and lawmakers are trying to find long-term solutions. The US and UK embassies have also issued warnings to travelers in rural areas.

But for hunters, the crisis is both frightening — and predictable.

“There are simply too many bears now, it’s an emergency situation,” says Ikegami.

The bear population in Japan has soared, while the number of licensed hunters has plummeted.

With more than a third of Japan’s population now over 65, rural locations are shrinking. There are few young people left, and even fewer are willing to dedicate themselves to hunting, a dangerous, poorly paid and unappealing job compared to urban life in places like Tokyo, explains Ikegami.

“If the government had taken this seriously sooner, it wouldn’t have reached this point,” Atsushi Kanno, a 37-year-old bear hunter, tells CNN. “It is absurd that they are reacting now, only after the situation has escalated.”

Bears advance into unoccupied areas

There are several factors driving the increase in encounters.

One of them is simply numbers. The population of the Hokkaido brown bear, one of two bear species in Japan, has more than doubled in the last 30 years, with nearly 12,000 animals now roaming the country’s northernmost prefecture. These robust relatives of the American brown bear can reach nearly two meters in height and exist only in Hokkaido.

The other species, the Asian black bear, is smaller, reaching around 1.65 meters. But it is also responsible for fatal attacks, particularly in northern prefectures like Akita and Iwate.

Experts say climate change is another factor. Poor harvests of nuts and fruit are pushing bears to look for food elsewhere.

“When there is a shortage, bears have to find food. I believe that bears are taking a step closer to human settlements”, explains Hiroo Tamatani, a bear conservationist, to CNN.

Demographic changes in Japan also exacerbate the problem. Rural locations and agricultural land once formed a natural barrier between dense forest and population centers. But as these areas empty, bears are taking over the space, taking advantage of the new territory available.

A shrinking line of defense

Culling is currently Japan’s main response to bears attacking people or entering residential areas.

The government changed laws to allow riot police to use firearms more easily. But the Self-Defense Forces remain legally barred from using weapons unless national defense is at stake, leaving hunters like Ikegami on the front lines.

Ikegami trains young hunters, but few have the skill or confidence to take down animals that can weigh several hundred pounds. At the same time, he regularly receives indignant phone calls asking him not to kill the bears.

“As long as we live here, we simply cannot coexist,” he says.

“Our lives are precious to us. No person would say that a bear’s life is more important than their own,” adds Ikegami.

Bear hunter Katsuo Harada shares this opinion. Although the 84-year-old still goes hunting, it is mainly his two apprentices who take the lead in reinforcing the border between the forest and residential areas.

Harada knows well, from his own experience, the power of these bears. More than 20 years ago, he was close to being killed by a bear while hunting deer.

“I fired two shots, but the bear didn’t stop. It jumped at me, snatched the gun from my hands and bit my head,” he tells CNN.

“My eye and ear were hung”, he reveals.

In the midst of the chaos, he thrust his fist into the bear’s throat, cutting off its airway long enough for the shots to take effect. Harada says he remembers little after that, as he lost and regained consciousness. But he remembers picking up his walkie-talkie and calling his friends who were hunting with him to ask for help.

Keep the bear’s skull as a reminder of how quickly roles can reverse—from hunter to prey.

Coexist or fight

Public opinion largely supports the slaughter. Many in Japan are now wary of hiking or traveling to prefectures with recent attacks, and a growing number prefer to visit “bear-free provinces,” areas without known bear populations.

But conservationists warn against widespread culling.

“Instead of killing them all, we should identify those who cause problems and deal with these cases individually”, says Tamatani.

Hiroo Tamatani tworks at a nonprofit called Picchio, which uses dogs to ward off bears and attaches tracking collars to track their movements. Tamatani also advocates the planting of trees that provide food for bears away from residential areas, so that they have access to natural resources further away from the localities.

Although repeat offenders can still be shot, he argues that these measures reduce unnecessary deaths.

“Bears are not monsters. They are animals that live just like us.”

Japan continues to search for solutions that protect human life while allowing wildlife to survive.

“Humans and animals have lived side by side for a long time. Sometimes we hurt each other, but we still must respect and recognize each other,” Tougen Yoshihara, a Buddhist monk who was attacked by a bear in May, tells CNN.

Yoshihara survived only because his dog, Chico, barked and chased the bear, he says. He escaped with minor injuries, but the experience left its mark – he now carries a razor when he walks in the forest.

For now, Japan finds itself at a crossroads. The country oscillates between fear and a desire to coexist with bears, an important part of the Japanese ecosystem.

But until a lasting solution emerges, it is likely that more lives, human and animal, will pay the price.