Overview
- Governor Yoshihiro Murai announced on Monday that Miyagi will start a prefecture-designated managed capture program in July and is now coordinating with related groups to implement it.
- Miyagi’s decision builds on fiscal 2025 model projects in Sendai’s Aoba Ward and Kurihara City that resulted in four captured Asiatic black bears.
- The move leverages a national policy from April 2024 that added bears to Japan’s managed wildlife list and offers grants to prefectures that submit capture and prevention plans.
- Neighboring Tohoku prefectures are taking different paths on technology and procurement: Yamagata plans an AI-camera demonstration to test roadside and riverbank mowing, Akita will choose solutions via a competitive procurement, and Miyagi currently has no plan to deploy AI.
- Officials say the program aims to reduce dangerous encounters and protect communities, and its rollout will test how capture operations, vegetation management, and interagency coordination work together under national funding incentives.