VOI.ID



 

Japanese authorities will take stricter steps to control their bear population, Japan's Environment Minister said Friday, after a recent record of death from a bear attack.

Japan set bears on a list of species in population control in April 2024, but sightings and attacks have soared, with seven people killed in the fiscal year starting April.

"We will strengthen our bear population control measures based on scientific data," Environment Minister Keiichiro Asao told a news conference.

Minister Asao appealed to the public to pay attention to local information about the bear sightings given by the city government.

In Iwate Prefecture, northeastern Japan, a 60-year-old man was missing on Thursday after being allegedly attacked by a bear, with animal bloodstains and fur then found in the vicinity of an outdoor bath in a Japanese-style inn he was cleaning.

Bears are also seen in tourist spots. In early October, a Spanish male tourist was attacked by a bear cub and suffered a minor injury to his arm in the mountain village of Shirakawa, part of a World Heritage site in central Japan.

In September, Japan relaxed its rules regarding the killing of bears entering populated areas, allowing local governments to approve an "emergency shooting".

The city of Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture, located northeast of Japan, became the first local entity to shoot a bear under this new rule earlier this week.