Overview
- National authorities have broadened culling guidance to allow killing bears in buffer zones outside towns, following a sharp rise in sightings and deadly encounters reported by the environment ministry.
- Officials reported roughly 14,000 bears culled in the last fiscal year and six people killed since April 1, figures that have driven the policy shift toward larger-scale lethal control.
- Nagano, which has run a catch‑tag‑and‑release program since 1995 with fencing, GPS monitoring and trained bear dogs, says its approach helped keep local sightings and deaths lower but is now constrained by new culling limits and program cutbacks.
- The surge in bear forays is linked to variable food supplies such as acorn shortfalls, possible climate effects on food cycles, and rural depopulation that leaves orchards and forests unmanaged and more attractive to bears.
- Researchers warn culling alone is unlikely to solve the problem and call for a mixed strategy of targeted removal, trapping and tagging, better land and orchard management, and community outreach to protect people while maintaining healthier bear populations.