Japan university to study health impact of rise in bear sightings, attacks on the elderly

AKITA — Many bear attacks and sightings occurred in 2025 in Akita Prefecture, and a survey to determine the influences of those incidents on the health of elderly people will be launched by Akita University’s Advanced Research Center for Geriatric and Gerontology (ARGG) in April.

About 10 per cent of the elderly who received medical examinations last autumn at the centre in Akita claimed they had anxiety and health problems, saying they could not go out due to a fear of bears.

A similar phenomenon occurred during the Covid-19 pandemic when many elderly people suffered from physical and mental health issues caused by being isolated. Through the survey, ARGG will clarify the impact that bears are having on people’s lives.

According to the Environment Ministry, preliminary figures show that there were 237 cases of people suffering bodily injuries by bears in fiscal 2025, which resulted in the deaths of 13 people. Akita Prefecture was the most affected with 67 casualties, including four deaths. The prefecture also had the largest number of bear sightings.

ARGG is headed by Professor Hidetaka Ota, a specialist in geriatrics.

According to Prof Ota, when the number of bear attacks and sightings rose last autumn, he started hearing complaints from an increasing number of elderly people, such as that they could not sleep over fears just by hearing a noise or that they sought safe haven in a family member’s house but felt stressed from changes in the environment.

Since 2018, ARGG has been conducting health surveys on elderly people’s cognitive function and physical capabilities.

Last autumn, the centre started detecting a rising trend in elderly people’s HbA1c (hemoglobin A1c) figures, which show blood sugar levels that rise when there is a lack of physical activity, among other causes. It seems those people avoided going out.

The centre believes that bear sightings are linked to causing stress and a lack of physical activity among the elderly.

Therefore, starting in April, ARGG will ask those surveyed whether they feel any influences due to bears and try to examine how such influences vary depending on area by matching the results with bear sighting locations.

During the pandemic, when many people avoided going out, some people developed depression caused by staying home for a prolonged period of time.

A follow-up survey from 2019 by Prof Ota and others in the city of Yokote in the prefecture found that 27 per cent of the respondents said they went out less often after the state of emergency declaration in 2020.

The survey found that some healthy people became physically fragile during that time period.

“It’s a serious situation if (bears) are affecting elderly people’s physical and mental health,” Prof Ota said.

“Bear sightings are expected to continue from now on, too, and there will be many harm caused by bears. So I think the data (provided by the survey) will be useful across the country. I’d like to analyse the data from various aspects, such as locations and seasons.” THE JAPAN NEWS/ASIA NEWS NETWORK