Bears Emerge as Serious Safety Threat: Japan White Paper

Tokyo, June 5 (Jiji Press)–Bears have become a “serious threat to public safety and peace” in Japan, with bear incidents and casualties reaching unprecedented levels in fiscal 2025, the government said in an annual report released Friday. According to the 2026 environment white paper, adopted at the day’s cabinet meeting, and other government data, the number of bear sightings across the country exceeded 50,000 and that of those injured or killed by the wild animal came to 238 in the year that ended in March. To cope with the bear threat, the government has allowed local municipalities involved to shoot bears in residential areas when urgently necessary since September last year. While referring to some emergency gun hunting cases, the white paper underscores the importance of nurturing fresh hunters with advanced knowledge and skills as existing hunters are getting much older. Meanwhile, amid the global oil tanker crisis highlighting the indispensability of petroleum, the report calls for Japan’s transformation to a “circular economy” in which resources and materials are used highly efficiently to create additional values. Maximizing resource efficiency “also contributes to strengthening (the country’s) economic security,” it notes. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]