Photo/Illutration Yoshio Watanabe surveys the damage caused by bears to his apple orchard in Akita city. (Nobuo Fujiwara)

Along with increasing attacks on humans, rampaging bears are causing economic havoc around Japan, destroying a fish farm tank, gobbling up expensive pears and stirring concern among convenience store operators.

Cabinet ministers met on Nov. 14 and agreed to strengthen measures to hunt bears.

Chiaki Mugisawa, 52, of the Yamaguchi Fish Farm in Mutsu, Aomori Prefecture, at the northern tip of the main Honshu island, said work had become a matter of “life and death” due to the bears.

In late July, about 1,000 salmon about to be sold from the farm were found dead after a bear had overturned a waterwheel aerator that pumped oxygen into the fish tank. The cable sending the oxygen to the tank had been pulled out and the water level in the enclosure was lowered.

The bear also ate some of the salmon.

The fish farm suffered economic damage totaling several millions of yen.

In the past, bears targeted the feed kept on the farm, but more recently the animals have been going after the fish itself.

Nine bears have been killed in the vicinity of the farm, but Mugisawa said, “Bears have become used to the taste of fish and are no longer afraid of humans.”

At the Naganuma fruit farm in Kaminoyama, Yamagata Prefecture, south of Aomori, bears had eaten La France pears from about 30 trees in October.

The farm had already been hit by an unusually hot summer and the bear feasting meant the pear harvest was only about 60 percent of normal years.

According to the farm ministry, for the past decade, fiscal 2023 was the worst in terms of damage by bears to harvests. That year the total damage came to 747 million yen ($4.8 million).

Ominously, the ministry said the beechnut harvest for five of the prefectures in the Tohoku region this year was at the same poor level as 2023.

Bears feed on beechnuts and the animals have to look elsewhere for food during a poor harvest.

CONVENIENCE STORE CHAIN TAKES ACTION

The Lawson Inc. chain of convenience stores has begun distributing spray repellent to member outlets to ward off bears.

The spray repellent will be sent to outlets that request it in Hokkaido, and the Tohoku and northern Kanto regions.

Lawson is also considering installing devices that emit low-frequency waves.

Outlet operators will be asked to decide whether to close their doors if bear sighting reports emerge in their neighborhoods.

The ministers’ meeting decided to strengthen measures to kill bears in the spring as well as those that frequently stray into residential areas.

Another measure to be implemented from this month is to call on retired members of Self-Defense Forces and police to obtain hunting licenses to increase the number of bear hunters.

From the next fiscal year, the central government will unify the methods for counting and estimating bear populations that had until now been left up to prefectural governments.

(This article was written by Nobufumi Yamada, Seisaku Yamamoto and Nami Sugiura.)

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