Photo/Illutration Junpei Tanaka and his bear dog, Rela, search for bears on mountains in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture, on Nov. 17. (Kazushige Kobayashi)

KARUIZAWA, Nagano Prefecture--On a recent early morning, a member of the Picchio wildlife conservation group searches for bears with a radio receiver on a pitch-dark forest road here.

Once the location is identified, Junpei Tanaka, 49, enters the mountains with his bear dog, Rela. Within 10 minutes, a deafening bark rings out. On that day, Tanaka and Rela drove away two bears.

Long before the unprecedented number of bear attacks made headlines across Japan this year, Picchio and the local government here took effective steps for peaceful human-bear coexistence.

In 2004, Karuizawa became the first community in Japan to introduce "bear dogs," which are trained to chase the scary mammals back into the mountains when they approach human settlements.

The town's efforts to coexist with bears have paid off, with no bear attack on humans reported in its residential areas since 2010.

In the 1990s, Karuizawa experienced a surge in bear sightings. In the 10 years leading up to 2010, four human-bear violent encounters occurred.

Picchio has worked with the municipal government to successfully reduce bear incidents by implementing a number of measures, including tracking bears with GPS collars, installing electric fences and introducing bear-proof trash cans.

They have also released captured bears back into the environment after teaching them to be wary of humans.

“We’ve spent 25 years teaching bears to stay away from humans,” said Tanaka. “Culling them alone doesn’t solve the problem, and we need to manage bears as well as the environment surrounding them so we can coexist.”

(This article was written by Kazuki Endo and Kazushige Kobayashi.)

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