Three people injured in Japan bear attack spree

Food shortages and rural depopulation likely driving wild animals into human settlements

Authorities in Japan’s Nagano prefecture are on high alert after a bear attacked three people in Iyama, leaving two seriously injured.

The animal entered residential properties, broke through glass and attacked two men and a woman, local media reported.

The bear was last seen fleeing into a vacant house but was gone by the time authorities arrived, The Japan Times reported.

According to NHK Japan, the bear attack occurred at around 4.30pm local time on Wednesday.

The first victim was a 65-year-old man working in a shed on his property. The animal then entered a nearby home, injuring a 96-year-old man and a 66-year-old woman.

Police and fire officials told the news outlet that the men were believed to have suffered serious injuries but all three victims were conscious.

“I was in the kitchen and heard a crashing sound. I wondered what it was and then saw a large black figure in the living room,” one of the victims told Yomiuri Shimbun.

Prefectural data shows there were 1,430 bear sightings in rural communities in the year ending March – the second-highest figure in the past decade – along with 13 reported cases of bear-related injuries.

Last year, it was reported that several municipalities were turning to AI to tackle bear threats. In Hanamaki, a city in Iwate prefecture, AI-enabled cameras were installed at 23 sites to detect bears nearing urban areas. The system would alert city officials whenever it spotted a bear, and they would respond alongside police and local hunters.

Fluctuating harvests of staple foods for bears, combined with rural depopulation, have been identified as key factors behind the rise in their encounters with humans.

Experts have also pointed to the declining number of children in country towns and villages – whose naturally noisy presence once helped deter bears – as another contributing factor.

In early 2024, the environment ministry reported to an expert panel that there were 19,192 sightings of Asian black bears between April and October 2023, the highest figure ever, exceeding the 18,000 sightings logged in 2020.

Typically, bear sightings peak in June and decline through October, before rising again in subsequent months. However, in 2023, the numbers began climbing earlier, with some 6,000 sightings reported in October of that year alone, according to Nippon.