This photo shows various cuts of bear meat. Clockwise from top-right, belly meat on the bone used for the rue with French brown sugar, roast thigh meat with honeyberry sauce, and small cuts of bear heart. (Courtesy of Les KaneKiyos)
SAPPORO — A French restaurant in Sapporo, Hokkaido, is now serving dishes made with bear meat. This is because more brown bears are being caught in the area.
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The restaurant, called Les KaneKiyos, works with hunters in Biei, Hokkaido, to get the bear meat. The chef, Kiyoshi Fujimoto, uses the meat in many ways. He makes “Brown bear Consomme,” a soup made from bear bones and meat, and also serves roasted and stewed bear. Chef Fujimoto said, “The strong flavor that one might imagine from a ferocious animal is not present at all. Enhancing tastes through skill defines French cuisine. I want customers to enjoy the meal these bears lost their lives for.”
Officials in Hokkaido said that 1,026 brown bears were captured in 2024. This is less than the record high of 1,804 in 2023, but still a large number. Bears are coming into areas where people live more often, especially when there are not many nuts in the forest for them to eat.
When there are fewer nuts, like in 2023, more bears are caught. In 2024, there were more nuts, so fewer bears came into towns. But in 2025, nuts are scarce again, so the number of captured bears may go up.
(Japanese original by Haruka Ito, Hokkaido News Department)
Vocabulary:
bear meat: meat from a bear, used for food
capture: to catch an animal
consomme: a clear soup
roast: to cook with dry heat, like in an oven
stew: to cook slowly in liquid
ferocious: very wild or dangerous
hunter: a person who catches or kills wild animals
scarce: not enough, hard to find
AloJapan.com