Overview
- The cabinet on Friday approved a package to enlist retired police and former soldiers with firearms experience to help cull problem bears.
- Police were authorized under amended gun rules to carry rifles, with armed officers beginning patrols in parts of Iwate after formal ceremonies in Iwate and Akita.
- Since April, 13 people have been killed in bear attacks nationwide, a record confirmed by government spokesman Minoru Kihara.
- The Self-Defense Forces were dispatched to Akita and Iwate to support trapping and transport operations, with troops providing logistics rather than shooting bears.
- Experts cite expanding bear populations, this year’s poor acorn and nut yields, and rural depopulation as drivers; estimates put brown bears near 12,000 and Asiatic black bears on Honshu around 42,000.