NAIE, Hokkaido--Hunters here are declining job offers to battle adversaries that are far superior in physical strength, speed and stealth and have been likened to members of U.S. special forces.

The hunters say the daily pay of up to 10,300 yen ($66) is not worth risking their lives to tangle with brown bears.

Brown bears have increasingly been wandering into residential areas in Hokkaido, their only habitat in Japan. And local authorities face a heightened urgency to hire hunters to keep the animals at bay or to kill them if they are threatening the lives of residents.

In Naie, a town with a population of 4,785 in central Hokkaido, local officials and hunters remain wide apart over the compensation issue.

In April, the town hall set up a task force to deal with bears and requested cooperation from members of the Hokkaido hunters association’s Naie club.

Under the town’s offer, each hunter would be paid 10,300 yen a day to conduct patrols during hours when brown bears are most active, set up traps, and, if necessary, kill and dispose of the animals at an incineration facility.

The Naie club members rejected the offer, saying the compensation is “too small” for an assignment that would likely extend beyond eight hours a day.

“It is not worth the trouble because confronting a bear will put our lives on the line,” Tatsuhito Yamagishi, head of the club, said.

The hunters also said it would be difficult for them to swiftly respond to calls for service.

Yamagishi, 72, and two of the other four club members are in their 70s. They all have day jobs.

Yamagishi said the Naie government should pay the hunters a more reasonable amount to deal with bears because it is the town’s responsibility to keep the community safe.

He feels the town underestimates the danger of brown bears, which he described as “wise” animals.

“Forests are their turf, and they can see us hunters even when we cannot see them,” he said.

Yamagishi said the bears offer no clues on where and when they will attack.

“I know many hunters who were mauled in the face in a flash,” he said. “Fighting a brown bear is like fighting a U.S. military commando in a forest.”

Twenty brown bear sightings were reported in Naie in 2023.

In September last year, local hunters drove away a brown bear that had strayed onto a golf course near the town’s center. They did so for free.

The town decided on a payment size after asking nearby Sunagawa city about its arrangement with hunters there.

Naie Mayor Eiji Mitsumoto told The Asahi Shimbun the town will continue talks with the hunters to enlist their assistance.

“We want to gain their cooperation,” he said. “We are hoping to negotiate with them, including a possible increase in the allowance.”

NO PAYMENT GUIDELINES

Hunters elsewhere in Hokkaido have also refused to work with local authorities on bear-related activities because of the compensation amounts.

In Shimamaki village in western Hokkaido, local hunters joined efforts to remove brown bears that frequently showed up in residential areas in summer 2018. Their two months of work entitled them to 10 million yen in compensation.

The village compiled a supplementary budget for the payment, but the Shimamaki assembly rejected the proposal.

The angered hunters decided they would not help the village with its wildlife problems, and they stayed away from bear-related activities for about two years.

With encroaching bears a constant threat, the assembly later adopted an ordinance to pay a maximum 2.4 million yen annually for animal control efforts.

This fiscal year, the village started paying 26,900 yen per hunter per dispatch, up from 20,000 yen the previous year, citing inflation.

“Since there are no unified guidelines for compensation, it is not easy to determine what is the appropriate amount,” a Shimamaki official said.

The Hokkaido hunters association, which has 215 clubs under its 71 branches, said that in lieu of unified guidelines, individual clubs and officials in their jurisdictions decide on the financial arrangements.

“Some participate for almost no pay, but others get paid tens of thousands of yen,” said Satoshi Saito, executive director of the association.

At Bibai, a city bordering Naie, the local hunting club is paid about 5.06 million yen annually to remove brown bears, deer and other wildlife.

The city raised the contract price by 1.28 million yen from fiscal 2023 after more animals were spotted within its limits.

The Ashibetsu municipal government in central Hokkaido pays 11,000 yen per hunter per dispatch. If a brown bear is captured, an additional 30,000 yen is paid.

RISKY BUSINESS

Hunters also join searches, rescue operations and maintenance work, including for power cables. These activities again put them in the natural habitat of brown bears.

More than 60 hunters were either killed or injured in Hokkaido by brown bears between fiscal 1962 and fiscal 2023, according to the Hokkaido government.

Brown bear attacks generally cause more serious injuries than those of the smaller Asian black bears, which are found primarily on the main island of Honshu.

Data by the Environment Ministry showed that black bears injured 2,237 people and killed 40 in Japan from fiscal 1980 to fiscal 2020.

Over the same period, brown bears attacked 73 people, killing 20 of them.

Toshio Onishi, a 70-year-old member of the Shimamaki club, said he wants the public to understand that dealing with potentially harmful animals should result in decent pay and respect from the public.

“Hunters deserve respect because joining the effort means they will be exposed to life-threatening danger,” he said.

(This article was written by Yosuke Sasaki and Koki Furuhata.)