Bears on rampage in Japan? 3 d!e in suspected attack in ONE WEEK

A bear appears to have k!lled a man picking mushrooms in a Japanese forest, police said Friday

More and more wild bears have been spotted in Japan, even in residential areas, due to factors including a declining human population and climate change.

“A man in his 70s who went missing after going into the woods to harvest mushrooms was found de.ad,” a local police officer in the northern region of Iwate told AFP.

“We suspect he was attacked by a bear based on scratch marks,” he said.

The official de.ath toll due to bear attacks has risen to six for the fiscal year starting April 2025, matching a record high seen in 2023, according to the environment ministry.

But in the last week there have been three fatal suspected attacks, which would push fatalities to an annual record if the cause of de.ath is confirmed as a bear.

As well as the man in his 70s, police found a de.ad man apparently attacked by a bear in another part of Iwate on Wednesday.

Local broadcaster TV Iwate said his head and torso had been separated.

While in the central prefecture of Nagano, the body of a 78-year-old man with multiple claw marks was found on Saturday.

While police highly suspect they d!ed in bear attacks, the cause of de.ath is still under investigation.

Between April and September 103 people nationwide suffered injuries caused by bears, according to the environment ministry.

On Tuesday, an agitated bear roamed the aisles of a supermarket in Gunma, north of Tokyo, injuring two men and frightening shoppers.

The store is close to mountainous areas, but has never had bears come near before, Hiroshi Horikawa, a management planning official at the grocery store chain, told AFP.

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