Bear Sightings Hamper School Activities in Japan

Tokyo, May 26 (Jiji Press)–Bear sightings have led to temporary closures and restricted outdoor activities at schools in Japan, with local education boards struggling over how to continue offering classes while ensuring safety of students. In Saeki Ward of the western city of Hiroshima on May 13-14, multiple emergency calls were made to police reporting sightings of bears in residential areas. According to sources including the city’s board of education, a total of at least 11 elementary, junior high and high schools in the city were closed May 14. “We’re not accustomed to dealing with bears in residential areas,” an official of the board said. “Still, it’s not realistic to close all schools just because there was a bear sighting report,” the official also said. “School principals and others are worried over what to do.” “I didn’t expect (a bear) to appear in a populated area like this,” said Seiko Yamashita, principal of Nagashima Elementary School in the city of Aomori, the capital of the namesake northeastern prefecture. There was a report that a bear was spotted near the school, located close to the Aomori prefectural government building, in the small hours of May 15, and a security camera installed at the school’s main entrance showed an image of a bear measuring about 150 centimeters in length walking in front of the gatepost. That day, which was a Friday, parents or other adults accompanied children on their way to and from the school, and students practiced at the gymnasium, not at the playground, for a school sports festival scheduled about a week later. Children were accompanied by their parents or other guardians to and from the school again on May 18, a Monday. Some children were afraid and absent. “If educational activities stop, that would put stress on children, but we have to put restrictions in place,” Yamashita said. “It’s a dilemma.” In Sendai, the capital of the northeastern prefecture of Miyagi, bear sightings were reported May 14-15, prompting a total of at least six elementary and junior high schools to suspend outdoor play and physical education classes. Some schools allowed children who were worried about going to school to stay home. “An incident (involving a bear) could happen at any time,” an official at the city’s board of education said. “Ensuring the safety of children is our top priority.” In the city of Kitakata in Fukushima Prefecture, which neighbors Miyagi, on the morning of May 15, a bear was seen crossing the playground of an elementary school. As it stayed in a nearby forest, the school hurriedly evacuated children on their way to school to nearby houses and a temple, and canceled the day’s outdoor activities, including a sports festival practice. In Namerikawa, a city in Toyama Prefecture, central Japan, an elementary school was closed May 1 in response to a bear sighting report, and an outdoor event at a high school was postponed for a week. A university was also affected. At Iwate University’s Ueda campus in Morioka, the capital of Iwate Prefecture, northeastern Japan, a bear was spotted near a gymnasium and a student dormitory on the morning of May 14. The city government decided to destroy the bear under the country’s emergency culling system. But the plan was canceled as the whereabouts of the bear became unknown. The university called off the day’s classes at the campus, located about 2 kilometers from East Japan Railway Co.’s Morioka Station, from the second period and offered classes online the following day. “We need to put students’ safety first,” a university official said. The emergency culling system, introduced in September 2025, allows shooting of bears or boars in residential or other inhabited areas based on decisions by municipal governments in accordance with the revised wildlife protection and management law. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]