At left, a mother bear and her cub visit a field to eat buckwheat in this undated photo from Akita prefecture. At right, fresh walnut bite marks are visible at the site of a fatal bear attack. (Akita prefecture)
TOKYO — Japan’s new defense minister has agreed to send troops to help a northern prefecture deal with a surge in bear attacks that have killed or injured dozens of people, a Defense Ministry spokesman said.
As of Wednesday, three deaths and 53 injuries this year in Akita prefecture have been attributed to bear attacks, compared with 11 injuries last year, according to the prefecture’s website.
The prefecture’s governor, Kenta Suzuki, met Tuesday with Defense Minister Shijiro Koizumi to request assistance from the Self-Defense Forces in addressing the issue, ministry spokesman Kimihito Aguin said at a news conference that day.
“The Ministry of Defense and the Self-Defense Forces have dispatched liaison officers to the prefectural office and begun discussions with the prefecture to work together to quickly consider countermeasures,” Aguin said, according to the transcript of the conference.
Suzuki had announced on Oct. 26 that he intended to seek military help, calling the situation “extremely serious,” according to a post on his Instagram account.
“The situation has now become beyond what prefectures and municipalities can handle on their own, and the exhaustion of those on the ground is reaching its limits,” he wrote. “So we have decided to make a request to the Ministry of Defense now that the new Cabinet has been formed.”
Bear encounters have surged across Japan as the animals venture into populated areas searching for food. Since April, 12 people have been killed nationwide — four times the number of fatalities recorded during the previous fiscal year, according to the Environment Ministry. Japan’s fiscal year begins in April.
The national government is committed to tackling the growing threat, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said Thursday at a news conference.
“Given the increasing diversity and scope of damages caused by bears, the government will make every effort to further increase the speed and effectiveness of its response, while also carefully listening to the opinions of local governments that have suffered the most damage, in order to ensure the safety and security of the lives of everyone living in these areas,” he said.
Kihara said that the government has elevated discussions on the issue to the ministerial level.
