Japan's bid to make people safer from bears has put the animals at risk on an unprecedented scale. After a record year of attacks in 2024—more than 230 people injured and 13 killed—the government loosened shooting rules and, between April 2025 and January 2026, more than 14,000 bears were killed, including about 12,000 Asiatic black bears and 2,000 brown bears. Officials blame shrinking numbers of hunters, abandoned farmland, and poor acorn and beech nut harvests for driving hungry bears into villages. Yet even after the mass cull, attacks have continued this year, with at least six people killed and dozens injured. The country's Environment Ministry is looking to curb hunting taxes to encourage hunters to continue, notes the Japan Times.
Conservationists warn Japan may be pushing a vulnerable species toward local collapses without solving the problem. "If this level of trapping continues, we believe regional extinctions are a real possibility," says Yuko Muroya, chair of the Japan Bear and Forest Society. "We feel a profound sense of crisis." Asiatic black bears are listed as globally "vulnerable," and Japan is thought to hold roughly 42,000 of them, though that estimate is more than a decade old and unverified.
Critics argue that scattershot killing—Japan plans to cull another 8,800 bears this year—mirrors "old school" tactics that other countries have largely abandoned in favor of targeted removals and prevention: fencing, hazing, bear-proofing, and restoring natural food sources. One standout: the resort town of Karuizawa, where a small nonprofit uses trained dogs, relocation, and public education—and hasn't seen a local attack in years.
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