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A man in Japan was mauled to death by a bear on Friday, the same week a bear was launched against the buyers in a supermarket in an area north of Tokyo and another person was found decapitated in a suspect bear attackmarking an uptick in such clashes, Japanese officials said.
According to the Japan Timesa man in his 70s who disappeared after going to pick mushrooms in the forest was found dead after mutilation.
“We suspect it was attacked by a bear based on scratch marks,” an Iwate prefectural police official told the Japanese media.
Between April and September, five bear-related deaths were confirmed in Japan and 108 people were injured. Several investigated incidents, including the man found Friday, could lead to a record number of bear-related deaths in the country since 2023, according to the report. AFP.
On Wednesday, police in Iwate found another dead man, believed to have been killed by a bear, whose head had been severed from his body, authorities said.
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Then, on Saturday, in Nagano Prefecture, the body of a 78-year-old man was found with multiple claw marks.
All victims are believed to have been killed by bears, although investigations are still ongoing.
On Sunday, a Spanish tourist was attacked by a bear at a bus stop in the town of Shirakawago in Gifu Prefecture, the Japanese Times reported.
Among the latest confirmed fatalities is a woman in her 70s who died last week while picking mushrooms in Miyagi Prefecture. He was with three friends, one of whom is missing, he added.
May 14, 2025: Photo taken on May 14, 2025 shows a bear and two cubs walking along a road in Shiretoko National Park in Shari City, northern Japan’s Hokkaido. In Japan, sightings of bears descending into populated areas in search of food are on the rise, as are reports of attacks on humans by the animals.
(Image credit: © Kyodonews via ZUMA Press)
Last Tuesday, two people suffered minor injuries after a bear entered a supermarket in the urban city, the urban area of Tokyo.
Japan’s national public broadcaster, NHKwrote that police were called to a report of a bear lying on top of a customer after it reportedly attacked a person in the store’s parking lot.
According to AFPthe bear was approximately 1.4 meters long and browsed the store’s fish and sushi selections before stamping on the avocados in the fruit section.
The store, located near mountainous regions where bears are found, had never been attacked by bears, Hiroshi Horikawa, the supermarket chain’s management planning officer, told AFP.
Reports of bear attacks in Japan, even in residential neighborhoods, have become more common in recent years, partly due to a declining human population e climate changewhich affected the bears’ access to food sources and, in turn, their hibernation cycles.
Bear populations are growing in Japan, which is home to two species of bears: the Japanese black bear and the Hokkaido brown bear.
According to Reuters, Japan’s bear populations are on the rise, in part due to an aging population of professional hunters struggling to manage them, as well as broader conservation efforts that include hunting bans and a decline in rural human populations, leaving room for the bears to expand their habitats.
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