On the 26th, a male hunter was injured in a bear attack in the mountains of Shimamaki Village in the Shiribeshi region of Hokkaido. A fellow hunter who was with him described the tense situation at the time. Reporter Yui Kitaoka: “The area beyond this point is closed to traffic during the winter, but the hunter was attacked by a bear in the mountains about 4km further ahead.”
■First brown bear attack on a person in Hokkaido in 2026 This is the first brown bear attack on a person in Hokkaido in 2026. The victim was a 69-year-old male hunter belonging to a hunting association. On the 26th, the man and four others had entered the mountains of Shimamaki Village in Shiribeshi, Hokkaido, for “spring management hunting” to prevent brown bears from appearing near human settlements after hibernation. Shortly after 4pm, a fellow hunter fired at the bear but failed to kill it, and the bear rolled down the slope and attacked the hunter who was nearby.
■Brown bear attacks hunter, creating a tense situation. Yuji Hanada of the Shimamaki branch of the Hokkaido Hunting Association, Suttsu branch, said, “The bear was growling as it fell, so I confirmed it was alive and told the man over the radio, ‘You’re alive, so be careful.’ I really wanted to shoot it to save him, but it was completely covering him, so I couldn’t do that either, as there was a possibility of hitting him. I shot it when it moved away. Even after I fired one shot, it covered him again.” The man who was attacked sustained injuries to his head and jaw and was taken to the hospital. His life is not in danger. The bear that attacked the man was a male weighing about 280 kg and was later killed by another hunter.
■Shimamaki Village shaken by brown bear sightings in 2018. Local government bewildered by personal injury. In the summer of 2018, bears appeared in the town center of Shimamaki Village every day for about two months. Because measures such as installing electric fences around houses had been taken to deal with the bears, this personal injury incident came as a shock. Shimamaki Village Mayor Kazumitsu Natsui: “I was honestly surprised to hear that someone who was culling dozens of bears got injured. I think that culling bears becomes a huge burden for a single municipality, and at the same time, it becomes impossible to cope with the situation.”
■Local Hunters: “Something is wrong with the bears” Regarding this incident, local hunters say that “something is wrong with the bears.” Mitsunori Takashima, Vice Chairman of the Shimamaki Branch of the Hokkaido Hunting Association, Suttsu Chapter: “They don’t seem to mind the sound of gunshots as much anymore. (Normally they would be wary and) wouldn’t come. In the past.” Yuji Hanada, Shimamaki Branch of the Hokkaido Hunting Association, Suttsu Chapter: “I’ve never seen anything like it before. It’s been over 20 years, but I’ve never seen such a tenacious bear.” With hunters being attacked, the question of how to coexist with bears and what measures to take are being raised.
