Overview
- A stray bear entered an autoparts factory in Fukushima on Tuesday, bit four workers and then sheltered inside a factory building before escaping the site late Wednesday.
- Response teams spent more than 24 hours trying to capture the animal with traps and tranquilizer guns, and a dart recovered later still contained its sedative, raising questions about the drugs’ effectiveness or the capture tactics used.
- Officials and witnesses reported the bear opened a window and drank from a tap while holed up, prompting Fukushima’s mayor to call the animal "extremely intelligent," and the on-site hunt was called off after its escape.
- Authorities warned residents to stay vigilant as the bear remained at large by Friday and response shifts from a concentrated hunt to broader public safety measures.
- The episode underscores a national rise in dangerous encounters driven by growing bear numbers, rural depopulation and poor acorn crops; government data show 13 people killed by bears in 2025, more than 50,000 sightings from April 2025 to March 2026, and an estimated 19,000 black bears in Tohoku.