“Overflowing with bears”: Life in Japan’s bear country

From a second-floor window of his home in Japan’s northern Akita prefecture, Billy Petite and his family watched a black bear eat fruit from a nearby persimmon tree. Someone called in a police officer, who monitored the bear for several hours before setting off fireworks to scare it away. The bear ran off to nearby bushes but returned minutes later, after the officer left.

The bear incident about two weeks ago was more than a nature sightseeing event for the family. It was the first time that Petite, pastor of Akita Bible Baptist Church, and his family saw one of the bears they have been hearing so much about as northern Japan deals with a rise in deadly bear attacks. Since April, bears have killed a record 13 people and injured 183 others. To combat the problem, authorities have deployed troops and riot officers, while residents adjust to living with the menace.

Asiatic black bears are prevalent on Japan’s main island of Honshu, which includes Akita, while bigger brown bears are common on the northernmost island of Hokkaido. Akita, with a human population of about 880,000, recorded many of this year’s casualties: at least four killed and dozens of others wounded since May.

Global warming has led to bears increasingly intruding into human spaces, wildlife ecologist Naoki Ohnishi of Japan’s Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute told NHK. Earlier springs and shorter winters have contributed to growing deer and wild boar populations, which means more of their carcasses available to bears as food, Ohnishi explained. More food for bears allows them to thrive. He also pointed out that if the nut crop in the mountains is poor, bears venture farther to forage.

“It’s now believed the mountain ecosystem has exceeded its capacity to support the bear population,” said Ohnishi, adding that “forests are simply overflowing with bears.”

The dwindling number of hunters over the years also explains the ursine uptick. “I seriously want to become a hunter,” said Petite, who sees it as a way to help his city. “But there are so many people that would not look kindly on killing bears, including my [fifth grade] son.” Japan has stringent requirements for obtaining a permit to possess firearms and a hunting license. Applicants for a permit to own a rifle for bear culling generally must have possessed a shotgun for at least 10 consecutive years.

At the request of Akita’s governor, Japan’s Defense Ministry deployed soldiers to the prefecture earlier this month to help trap bears, transport local hunters, and remove bear carcasses. While troops aren’t allowed to cull the bears, the National Police Agency recently permitted riot officers to shoot them with rifles in Akita and neighboring Iwate prefecture. In central Honshu’s Gifu prefecture, officials started flying drones that emit barking noises to scare away bears.

Still, bears searching for food ahead of hibernation continue to encroach on residential areas. Late Sunday morning in Akita’s Noshiro city, a male bear walked into a shopping center and remained in the furniture department until authorities subdued it with a tranquilizer blowgun and eventually killed.

“It’s so weird, we’re sort of like, ‘That’s just part of life now,’” Petite said of the bear intrusion. He has lived in the area since 2011. “I haven’t been to a store [where] the automatic doors work in quite a while,” he noted, citing a now-common precaution against bears.

Petite has also found bear droppings in his church’s parking lot. He repeatedly warns his 60 or so congregants to watch out for bears when leaving their cars to enter the church building for Sunday service.

In the region of Hokkaido’s Otaru city, J.P. Koch, like many local parents, has started driving his 10-year-old daughter and 13-year-old son to and from school instead of letting them walk. For the past few weeks, a bear cub has shown up almost daily near an elementary school, prompting several schools in the area to close or switch to online classes, said Koch. Officials aren’t sure if a more dangerous mother bear might also be nearby.

In previous years, Koch, a missionary involved in church planting, has encountered bears outside of Hokkaido’s residential areas. Once, while hiking on a forest trail on Mount Teine, he caught the scent of the animal before spotting it. He recognized the odor, describing it as “a mix of wet dog, miso, soy sauce.”

Another time, he saw bear tracks in the snow while splitboarding in the mountains. Snow rolled off the slope, signaling to Koch that a bear was near. He thinks the ringing from the bells attached to his backpack warded off the animal.

Besides bells, residents have turned to bear spray for protection. Many people are afraid for their lives, said Petite, who considered giving out bear spray to help allay fears within his community. But he noted the chemical deterrent “is very cost-prohibitive.” Montbell, an outdoor apparel and equipment retailer in Japan, prices 7.9-ounce cans of bear spray at 12,100 yen (about $77) each.

Petite thinks Japan’s bear predicament can offer Christians an opportunity to talk with their neighbors about their beliefs. “We know that our hope does not come from bear spray or bears not being in the neighborhood. It comes from Christ,” he said.

In Japan, Christians make up less than 1% of the population. Petite hopes others “can see the difference in Christians,” he added. “Yes, we’re careful, obviously, but it’s not like we’re so scared every day and living in fear of bears.”