Wild black bear in Japan captured after multi-day hunt captures the nation’s attention
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A screen grab from surveillance footage shows a wild bear in a residential area in Utsunomiya, Japan, on June 7.
PHOTO: REUTERS
UTSUNOMIYA, Japan – The Japanese city of Utsunomiya captured a wild black bear on June 9 after a dramatic multi-day search that gripped the nation, as local schools closed and residents were urged to stay indoors.
The city closed all 94 municipal primary and middle schools were closed for a second straight day, on June 9 after its first-ever bear sighting on the evening of June 6.
Authorities decided to keep schools closed again on June 10 due to a report of a possible second bear roaming the city, an official said.
Bear attacks, including in urban areas, have increased in Japan, prompting the government to set up a task force in 2026 to reduce casualties. In the 2025 fiscal year, the country reported a record 238 victims, including 13 deaths, according to the environment ministry.
With about 500,000 residents, Utsunomiya in Tochigi Prefecture is part of the Greater Tokyo Metropolitan region, about 100km north of the capital.
When the bear resurfaced in a residential area early on the afternoon of June 9, police cars and other vehicles involved in the search promptly blocked off the vicinity.
For more than an hour, police officers milled about, with some holding long sticks and others metal shields, as some national broadcasters aired live footage filmed from helicopters.
The adult bear, which was estimated to weigh about 100kg, was eventually shot with a tranquiliser gun, loaded onto a cage on a truck and driven away. The city has yet to decide what to do with it, an official said.
Around 100km to the northeast, Iwaki, in Fukushima Prefecture, also suspended classes at three schools on June 9 in a neighbourhood where a black bear was spotted a day earlier.
Last week, a bear attack in Fukushima city left at least four people injured, with security footage in one incident showing the animal chasing a man and throwing him to the ground.
Asiatic black bears are listed as a vulnerable species globally, but their numbers are estimated to have tripled in Japan since 2012, helped by a decline in hunting.
Experts say climate change has reduced harvests of bears’ natural food like acorns and beechnuts, while the depopulation of rural areas and the proliferation of abandoned farmland have emboldened them to seek food near human settlements. REUTERS
