A stuffed model of one of Japan’s biggest brown bears, dubbed Hokkai Taro, which was exterminated in 1980, is seen at the Tomamae town museum in Tomamae, Hokkaido, Oct. 13, 2024. The bear weighed 500 kilograms and had a paw print measuring 27 centimeters across. (Mainichi/Haruka Ito)
SAPPORO (Kyodo) — A male hunter in his 50s has gone missing on Mt. Esan in Japan’s northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido, local authorities said Tuesday, raising concern over his safety as a brown bear was sighted in the area three days earlier.
Police and firefighters have launched a search operation, said authorities in Hakodate, where the 618-meter mountain is located close to a number of residential areas and schools.
In Japan, sightings of bears coming down to populated areas in search of food have been on the rise amid a decline in human activity in mountainous areas and an increase in abandoned farms as a result of the aging and shrinking rural population.
On Saturday, authorities in Hokkaido issued a top-level alert about brown bears in one of its towns following a fatal attack on a newspaper deliveryman, marking the first time such a warning had been issued in the prefecture.
In April, Japan’s parliament enacted a revised law to allow municipalities to authorize “emergency shootings” by hunters when dangerous animals, such as bears, enter populated areas.
AloJapan.com