A man has been attacked by a bear in a public toilet in Japan, local media reported on Friday – the latest in a record-breaking wave of attacks this autumn, including those in populated areas.
The victim, a 69-year-old security guard, told police he had noticed the bear, which was 1-1.5 metres long, peering inside as he was about to leave the building in Gunma prefecture, north of Tokyo, in the early hours of Friday, Kyodo news agency and broadcaster NHK reported.
The man, who has not been named, fell backwards and fought the bear off by kicking his legs, causing it to flee. He suffered minor injuries to his right leg but was able to run to a nearby police box to report the incident, which occurred near a railway station that had closed for the night.
A record 13 people have died in bear attacks in Japan since the start of April, according to the environment ministry, while the number of attacks in that period stands at 197 – another record. Many of the incidents occurred in Akita, a northern prefecture, followed by Iwate and Fukushima in Japan’s north-east.
The number in 2025 will almost certainly exceed the annual record of 219 attacks set in the year starting April 2024.
Experts say hungry bears are venturing into residential and other built-up areas in search of food after poor crops of acorns and beechnuts in their natural habitat.
In response, the government has sent members of the self-defence forces to Akita to help local hunters trap and dispose of bears. Armed police officers have also been given permission to shoot the animals amid a shortage of licensed hunters.
A local government in north-east Japan apologised this week after it discovered that an image it had posted on social media to promote awareness of bear attacks had been AI-generated.
The image, uploaded to the X account of the Onagawa municipal government, showed a huge bear standing on a road at night.
Officials deleted the post after the image’s creator, who had seen the photo spreading online, contacted them to explain that it was fake.
“We have caused anxiety and inconvenience to the town’s residents,” the Mainichi Shimbun quoted an Onagawa official as saying.
AloJapan.com