As a hunter in Japan, I've got a unique view of the current bear problems that Japan is facing. During my last trip to Europe in September, I had the chance to have a lot of conversations about wildlife management practices, how they can mesh with hunting, and have had some time to think about what I can do to be a part of the solution.
Unfortunately the government in Japan has not had a cohesive plan for the management of bears, and the result is not good. We have two species of bear in Japan, the large brown bears on Hokkaido island in the north, and the Asiatic black bear scattered through the rest of Japan. Bears can be hunted in Japan, although in some prefectures where they are still endangered, they are protected. In fact for many years the bears were very protected, as they had been hunted almost to extinction. Our human forefathers had a way of doing that to predators. Today have a very particular problem, where due to a population shift out of the countryside, and into the cities, there is actually increasing habitat for the wildlife in Japan, and with massive amounts of farmland going fallow due to an aging farming population, there is plenty of food close to human habitation. We are seeing numbers of deer, boar, and bear that Japan has not had in almost 200 years.
Picture borrowed from Bunshun Online
There are no concrete numbers for the bear population, because the Ministry of the Environment has never done a survey. Wikipedia lists Japan as having a population of 2000 brown bear, but since we had to cull over 1800 in 2023 alone, it is safe to assume our population is much larger. It is generally accepted that we have at least over 12,000 brown bear in Hokkaido (more likely 20,000), and 12,000 black bear through the rest of the country (more likely 50,000). However in my opinion this number is a vast underestimate. In 2023, which was the worst year for human bear conflict, we had to cull 9000 bears. In 2024, 5000 were culled. This year hunters have culled 6000 bears since April. And still, 2025 is the worst year on record for human bear conflict. We have record numbers of bear sightings, over 200 attacks on humans since April of this year, leading to twelve deaths. Shockingly, over 90 percent of the attacks on humans this year have not been in 'natural' areas, but in areas of human habitation, often within cities, with bears breaking into buildings and houses, and in one case in Hokkaido, stalking and killing a newspaper delivery man.
Because the bears were protected for many years, and many types of hunting them were restricted, there are almost no bear hunters left. You can't just flick your fingers and have bear hunters, it's a dangerous thing that requires skill, experience, and someone to teach you. And the dogs, well if you no longer have dogs that are specifically bred and trained to hunt bear, it may take years before you can restart a hunting program. Due to the aging population we also have a continual decrease in hunters, and the average age of hunters in Japan is well over 60 years old. As recent as 10 years ago, there was only one hunter left in the Hokkaido Ken Hozonkai breeding Hokkaido for bear hunting.
Most bear control now is done by the hunter's association, through trapping. But in my opinion a more planned approach is necessary. There should be more hunting using dogs, as the bears that escape will definitely learn to fear humans and dogs, and non lethal trap and release, gps tagging, and hazing (scaring) bears that are near human habitation should be used. Teach the bears that live near human habitation to steer clear. Currently, the bears have been shown to have little to no fear of humans, with traditional means of bear avoidance like walking around with bells, radios, making noise etc not having any affect on the bears, and in some cases it has been shown that the bears are now actively attracted to these noises.
Coexistence is definitely possible, but management plans need to take all factors into consideration: holding capacity of natural areas, manageable population number, training and organization of bear management teams to keep bear away from human habitation through hazing, and culling of problem animals when necessary. If the bear that live near humans have a healthy fear of them, we generally will not even know they are there.
While in Norway, cattle man, hunter, and bear researcher Halvor Sveen showed me a very interesting video he had taken of a bear in Norway coming down from the mountain. One whiff of a human scent on something dropped on the ground, and the bear wheeled around like it had been struck by lightning, and went back into the forest. That's a bear that knows to stay away from humans.
There is one NPO in Japan that works with the local municipality in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture. They were set up to help manage the bear population there, and from what I've heard 20 years in and they are doing very well. Picchio's bear management plan is based off of a similar US based NPO, and so imported their Karelian Bear Dogs from the US program. I will hopefully be able to visit with the staff from Picchio this December while I'm up hunting in Nagano. I've always thought that this could be a task that the Nihon Ken could really shine in, and giving them official work could really help the preservation efforts.
With almost daily bear attacks this autumn, the government has finally set up a committee to deal with bear issues at a national level. They have passed legislation allowing police snipers to shoot bear, and in an unprecedented move, the Japanese military has been deployed to problem areas. That is how serious the situation is in Japan. Earlier this year they passed legislation which should permit the shooting of dangerous animals in urban areas, by hunters, under certain conditions.
The bear situation is an interesting case study in how man, nature, and wildlife converge even in a very modern country like Japan. Nature is not something that we only visit on the weekend, to be left 'untouched' as is often said. We are part of it, even if man currently has imaginary lines where nature stops. And in a small country where we still have a very large amount of natural areas and wildlife, and where we have a resurrected population of large predators, man still needs to be a part of the equation. Hunting sustainably and respectfully, the oldest human pursuit, still has its place and is still necessary.
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