Overview
- Police say a 60-year-old male worker disappeared Thursday from Ryokan Semi Onsen in Kitakami, Iwate Prefecture.
- The manager reported he did not return after going to clean the riverside open-air bath.
- Officers found bloodstains near the bath, the worker’s glasses and slippers, about 10 strands resembling bear fur, blood under a roughly one-meter fence, and a cleaning tool outside the enclosure.
- Security footage shows the employee heading toward the bath with no recorded exit, and he was working alone.
- Investigators are examining a possible link to a body found last week about two kilometers away in a suspected bear attack, and the search continues.