The deer, with a history of over 1300 years, are a symbol of Nara. These deer, cherished as messengers of the gods, are now beginning a massive migration outside of Nara Park and even outside of Nara Prefecture. What lies behind this?
The Kansai TV “news runner” reporting team thoroughly tracks the deer’s movements!
Since last week, there have been numerous sightings of deer in Higashi-Osaka City. The Yomiuri TV news crew captured footage of a deer confidently roaming a residential area. Here’s a live report from the scene. (Reporting by Yuumi Ariyoshi)
(Ariyoshi) I’m reporting from an area in Higashi-Osaka City lined with factories and houses. Deer have been sighted in Higashi-Osaka City since the 11th, but what about now…can you see it over there? There’s a deer resting. It looks like it’s eating grass, as it’s moving its mouth.
Some locals have come to see the deer out of curiosity. But it’s not just people; local stray cats, who seem to be seeing a deer for the first time, have also come over out of curiosity, and a staring contest continued for about five minutes while we were reporting.
Where did this deer come from? We investigated thoroughly. ▽▽▽▽▽ Deer have been sighted one after another in Higashi-Osaka City since last week. Since the 11th of this month, the city has received eight reports of sightings. On the 18th, the ten reporting team went to Higashi-Osaka City.
When they spoke to a local resident… Local resident: “I took the picture from far away. I went along the road and it was at the end.” (Q: Was it there today?) “Yes, I saw it on my way there a little while ago…” (Q: How many minutes ago was that?) “About 20 minutes ago…” Based on the sighting reports, they headed to the location where the deer was seen… (Director Yusuke Nibuya) “There it is! It’s a deer.” A little after 11 a.m., a deer was spotted in a residential area of Higashi-Osaka City. The deer appeared in a residential area about 3 kilometers from Kintetsu Ishikiri Station. The deer continued to move after that. When the reporting team reported it to the city… (Q: There’s a deer in Kano Green Space in Higashi-Osaka right now.) Higashi-Osaka City official: “Basically, it’s a wild animal, so please don’t approach it or feed it, just observe it from a distance.” According to the city, wild animals that don’t cause harm to people or crops cannot be protected, and they will continue to urge caution. Local resident: “I was so surprised. I never thought there would be a deer here.” “It’s quite a distance away, to Nara Park. It’s over that mountain, so I wondered if it would come this far.”
The deer seemed to notice the presence of humans but didn’t seem to mind, continuing to walk confidently. According to Higashi-Osaka City, there are no wild deer living in the adjacent Ikoma mountain range, so they believe it’s possible that it came from Nara Park.
Could it really be a deer from Nara Park? We showed the footage we just shot to someone from the Nara Deer Preservation Society… Yasuhiro Nakanishi of the Nara Deer Preservation Society said, “These are the antlers of a young deer, about one year old, so it’s a male. If this were a slightly larger male deer, and its antlers had been completely cut off, we would know that it lived in Nara Park, but as it is, we don’t know where this deer came from.”
According to the Deer Preservation Society, the number of deer in Nara Park is increasing year by year, with a 2025 survey showing 1,465 individuals, and males that lose territorial battles sometimes leave Nara Park. The deer that inhabit Nara Park are wild animals designated as a national natural monument.
However, if they leave Nara Park and cause damage to people or crops, they may be culled as harmful wildlife. Higashi-Osaka City says that there have been no reports of damage to people or crops so far, but they are calling on citizens to “not approach,” “not show or give food,” and “not shout” if they see a deer. △△△△△
(Ariyoshi, reporter) The deer is…over there now. It hasn’t moved at all for a while now. It looks like it’s just taking a rest. My image of deer in Nara Park is that they’re usually under trees or somewhere sheltered from the rain, but right now it looks like it’s resting peacefully in the open. This spot is about 500 meters from where we first found it, and Nara, which some might consider its “hometown,” is on the other side. The weather is bad right now so you can’t see it very well, but you can see Mount Ikoma, and beyond that is Nara Prefecture.
It’s about 19 kilometers from here to Nara Park. To get to this park after crossing Mount Ikoma, you have to cross a busy road, and the locals were very puzzled, saying things like, “How on earth did it get here?” and “If it really came from Nara Park, how did it get here?” There have been sightings of deer in this area for about three days now.
The deer in front of us now has thin antlers, but some locals have said they’ve seen deer without antlers, so there might be several deer in this area. Since approaching the deer is dangerous, Higashi-Osaka City can only monitor the situation and is urging people not to touch them or feed them unnecessarily.
