Police officers and hunters search for a brown bear that attacked a man and hid in a thicket in the town of Fukushima, Hokkaido, on July 12, 2025. (Mainichi/Kunihiko Misawa)
SAPPORO — A man died early on the morning of July 12 in the Hokkaido town of Fukushima after being attacked by a bear, the Mainichi Shimbun has learned.
At around 2:50 a.m., a town resident called police to report that “a person was attacked by a bear and dragged into a grassy area.”
Firefighters and hunters rushed to the scene and found the man lying in a thicket at around 4:40 a.m. He was pronounced dead at the scene about 30 minutes later with injuries from a brown bear attack. The bear has not been found, and hunters are continuing to search the surrounding area.
Hokkaido Prefectural Police believe the victim was an employee of a newspaper delivery business. The attack occurred in the town center roughly 700 meters north of Fukushima Town Hall. Police are urging residents to remain alert.
The town also saw a fatal bear attack in 2023 when a 22-year-old male university student was killed on Mount Daisengen, which stands 1,072 meters tall.
(Japanese original by Ayako Morihara, Hokkaido News Department)
AloJapan.com