SAPPORO – 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