October 31, 2025

Akahata editorial (excerpts)

Bear attacks (brown bears, black bears) have injured more than 108 people, as of October 29, this fiscal year. The death toll has reached 12, which is the highest on record. There have also been frequent cases of bears entering human residential and commercial areas.

Bears are naturally wary and live in forests. So why are they increasingly entering areas where humans live?

The Ministry of the Environment believes that because of a shortage of food such as acorns, more bears are coming down from the mountains to search for food in buffer zones known as “satoyama” or village woodlands. The decline in agriculture and forestry due to the depopulation and aging has led to a decrease in human activities such as gathering firewood in satoyama areas. The area of abandoned farmlands with tall overgrown grasses where bears can easily hide has also increased. The ministry has concluded that these factors are attracting more bears to human living areas adjacent to buffer zones.

Successive LDP-led governments are responsible for the sharp rise in bear attacks because they persistently implemented policies destructive to agriculture and forestry and exhausted agricultural communities.

Forests cover 66% of Japan’s land area. In order to protect these forests as habitats for diverse wildlife, it is crucial to revitalize and maintain satoyama woodlands. As many bears cross riverside forests to reach human living areas, the proper maintenance and management of riverbanks is also important.

The government should increase its budget significantly and foster forestry specialists so as to create forests that conserve biodiversity, including bears as part of the ecosystem.