Japan looks to curb rising bear attacks with recruited hunters
12 people have died to bears this year already with over 100 injured too.
The government of Japan has come up with a solution to one of the country's more surprising problems. Due to a noticeable rise in bear attacks, the environment ministry has decided that the way forward is to hire hunters to cull bears and therefore reduce the frequency of attacks too.
According to BBC News, so far this year Japan has seen 12 fatalities due to bear attacks, which is the largest number on record since tracking began in the 2000s. You might see this as a bit of an overreaction due to the fact that Japan's population is around 123 million people, but the government has described the situation as a "serious threat to public safety".
Another solution on top of the bear hunters will be enabling police to shoot bears with their rifles, but we won't know the exact decision that the country will come up with until mid-November when the counter-measure agreement is put into place.
It's also worth noting that on top of the 12 deaths this year, Japan has recorded over 100 bear-related injuries this year too, most of which seemingly are related to the more aggressive and larger brown bears that are found on the island of Hokkaido. The exact split of which injuries are attributed to each bear species is not stated, but it is claimed that the Japanese black bear tend to be more docile and are smaller, and less likely to be the cause of the deaths/injuries.
