Overview

• Tsuruoka city officials authorized emergency shooting under the new system after a bear lingered at a home on September 20, which the Environment Ministry indicated is likely the first such municipal decision nationwide.
• Because safety checks were not complete when the bear moved, police directed hunters to fire under existing police authority, and no injuries were reported.
• The same bear had been seen earlier that morning along a local riverbank before moving into a residential garden and staying for a time, according to the city.
• In central Morioka on September 25, a roughly 1‑meter bear rammed a storefront entrance and was later seen on the Kitakami River bank near JR Morioka Station, with police reporting no injuries.
• Morioka requested deployment of the local hunting association and issued cautions to residents and nearby schools, while police in Hachimantai logged a separate sighting of four bears believed to be two adults with two cubs.