Overview
- Tokyo approved a countermeasure package that subsidizes hiring licensed hunters, encourages retired police and former SDF personnel to obtain hunting licenses, and supports traps, electric fences, drones and standardized population surveys, with funding to be sought in a supplementary budget.
- Minoru Kihara instructed ministries to prepare for expanded spring culling and to produce a bear countermeasure road map with regional targets.
- Revised rules allowing some officers to use rifles took effect Thursday, and Akita and Iwate prefectural police launched dedicated units that will shoot only in emergencies or when hunters cannot respond.
- SDF units are assisting hard‑hit areas such as Akita with logistics like setting and transporting traps and moving captured bears, without carrying firearms or conducting hunts.
- The U.S. Embassy issued a wildlife alert for northern Japan, noting the two‑week closure of Sapporo’s Maruyama Park near the U.S. Consulate, as officials report at least 13 deaths and 100+ injuries since April and cite poor acorn harvests, growing bear numbers, climate effects and rural depopulation as drivers.