THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
November 2, 2021 at 18:50 JST
Multiple reports of a monkey on the loose in central Tokyo have police going bananas trying to find the primate.
Tokyo police from Nov. 1 have received a string of reports of sightings of a monkey, believed to be a wild one.
At around 5 p.m. on Nov. 1, the Metropolitan Police Department’s Kitazawa police station was alerted that a monkey was spotted up in a tree at Setagaya Hachimangu shrine in the capital's Setagaya Ward.
At 8:05 a.m. on Nov. 2, a resident called police, telling them, “A monkey is hanging around” near Komaba-Todaimae Station on the Keio-Inokashira Line in Meguro Ward.
The station is about four kilometers east of the Setagaya shrine.
The Metropolitan Police Department’s Meguro police station then dispatched its officers to hunt for the monkey around the station.
On Twitter, multiple people have posted videos capturing a monkey climbing a power pole and crossing wiring over a railway track, accompanied by comments such as, “I saw a monkey in Komaba-Todaimae!”
The neighboring Shibuya Ward office also received a report of a monkey sighting in the ward on Nov. 2.
There have been no reports of anyone being injured by a monkey, officials said.
But municipal officials have alerted residents about possible monkey encounters and warned them not to get close to the animals, feed them or make eye contact and to ensure they lock their doors at home.
Monkey sightings have been prevalent in Tokyo since around August.
At least one sighting has been reported in Kita, Itabashi, Taito and Bunkyo wards, as well as Chofu, Komae, Higashi-Kurume and Koganei cities.
In late September, a monkey was captured at Haneda Airport, which is located in Ota Ward.
(This article was written by Ryo Oyama and Ryota Goto.)
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A monkey seen in a residential area of the Okura district of Tokyo’s Setagaya Ward on Nov. 1 (Junichi Obata)
