Japan Top Court Backs Bear Hunter, Overturns High Court Ruling

Tokyo, March 27 (Jiji Press)–The Supreme Court on Friday backed a hunter seeking to cancel the revocation of his gun license that was decided after he shot a bear at the request of a municipality in Hokkaido, northernmost Japan. The Japanese top court’s Third Petty Bench, in a unanimous decision among its five justices, overturned a high court ruling that it was legal for Hokkaido to revoke his gun license on the grounds that his shot could have damaged nearby buildings. The victory of the hunter, Haruo Ikegami, 77, head of a branch of Hokkaido’s hunting club, has now become final. This was the first time for the Supreme Court to rule the revocation of a hunting gun license to be illegal. After the judgment, local governments are expected to become more careful about deciding disciplinary action against hunters in a country experiencing an increase in bear attack incidents. Ikegami, a part-time civil servant as a member of a public team to deal with damage by wild animals, shot dead a brown bear cub with a rifle under the supervision of the Hokkaido city of Sunagawa and local police in August 2018. The Hokkaido public safety commission rescinded his gun license in April 2019, citing the possibility that his shot could have hit nearby buildings. The Third Petty Bench emphasized that Ikegami performed his duties at the request of the city, while acknowledging that his shots might have hit other hunters at the scene. His duties “were part of important activities to protect the living environment of local residents,” it said. It was too severe to revoke his hunting gun license as no one was hurt and such measures may hinder part-time public servant hunters from performing their duties, the Third Petty Bench said, concluding that the license revocation by the prefectural public safety commission was “too harsh” and amounted to an abuse of its discretionary power. “We take the ruling seriously,” the commission said in a statement, “We will apologize for the inconvenience and burdens, and take procedures to return Ikegami’s rifle to him.” Over the case, Sapporo District Court nullified the license revocation, saying that Ikegami’s shots did not damage any nearby buildings. In contrast, Sapporo High Court ruled that the measure was legal because the visibility was poor at the scene and bullets could have easily ricocheted. Ikegami appealed the high court ruling to the Supreme Court. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]