Overview
- Akita Prefecture and the GSDF’s 9th Division signed an agreement Wednesday to bolster local responses to a rise in dangerous bear encounters.
- About a dozen personnel were dispatched to Kazuno from a base in Akita City to begin the operation.
- Support includes setting and transporting box traps, moving hunters and captured bears, and digging burial sites, with no use of firearms by GSDF members.
- The activities are classified under SDF law as a transportation project, with staged expansion to other municipalities coordinated by the prefectural government.
- Officials cite a nationwide increase in bear appearances, with 14 deaths reported this year and roughly 60 attacks including four fatalities in Akita.