Overview

• Flights resumed on Friday after the runway at Yamagata Airport reopened following a daylong closure.
• The black bear first appeared on the runway at around 7 a.m., delaying four flights, and reemerged near noon to prompt 12 cancellations.
• Hunters have set traps and police have cordoned the perimeter, but the animal remains at large within airport grounds.
• The incident underscores record levels of bear encounters in Japan, with 219 attacks and six fatalities reported in the year to April 2024.
• Experts link rising incursions to climate-driven shifts in food availability and to forest expansion in depopulated rural areas.