Bear Culled under Emergency System in Japan’s Sendai

Sendai, Miyagi Pref., April 19 (Jiji Press)–An adult bear that appeared in a residential area in Sendai, a major city in northeastern Japan, was destroyed under the country’s emergency culling system Sunday. The bear, which was as tall as about 1.5 meters, stayed on the grounds of an apartment in the residential neighborhood in Aoba Ward of the Miyagi Prefecture capital for about 10 hours, according to the Sendai municipal government. No injuries have been confirmed in the bear incident, the city government 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. On Sunday morning, a local resident who saw the bear in the residential area reported this to police. A bear was spotted also Saturday night, in areas about 1 to 2 kilometers from the residential area. The bear spotted Sunday was highly likely to be the same as the one found Saturday, the Miyagi prefectural police said. The city government tried to capture the bear by setting a box trap. As the measure did not work and there was a risk of the bear moving around the city, the local authorities decided to cull it by using a tranquillizer gun and an electric prod under the emergency system. The area in front of the apartment building was cordoned off, and a nearby road was temporarily closed to traffic. Police officers wearing helmets were mobilized around the apartment. The residential area is about 1 km from the Sendai municipal government building. Located nearby are a municipal junior high school, a shopping mall and Tohoku University Hospital. Before the culling, a corporate worker in her 40s who lives nearby expressed surprise, saying, “I never imagined a bear coming to a residential area like this.” She said she came to the apartment area after viewing a social media image showing the bear. “I’m scared to think about the possibility of my son, who is a high school student, encountering the bear on his way to or from a preparatory school,” she said. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]