A man in rural Fukushima was startled to find a bear nestled in his living room on Monday evening, coinciding with the Japanese government’s plans to relax laws regarding the shooting of these wild animals.
Local media reported that the man, in his 60s and living alone, returned home from work to discover the bear with its head buried under a kotatsu—a traditional low table with a heating element and blanket commonly used in Japanese homes. “I came home from work and there was a bear with its head shoved into the kotatsu,” he recounted.
The bear, approximately 90 centimeters (three feet) long, prompted the man to flee to a neighbor’s house and call the police. Upon returning over an hour later, he found the bear had scattered his food around the living room. Authorities advised nearby residents to either evacuate or secure their homes, but fortunately, no injuries were reported.
As of midday Tuesday, public broadcaster NHK reported that the bear remained inside the house, with police monitoring the situation amid the snowy landscape surrounding the residence.
This incident is part of a growing trend of human-bear encounters in Japan, leading the government to propose easing restrictions on shooting bears. The new regulations, expected to take effect next year, would empower local governments to authorize “emergency shootings” in more populated areas.
Experts attribute the increase in bear sightings to a declining human population in rural regions, which forces hungry bears to venture closer to towns. Additionally, climate change is impacting the bears’ food supply and hibernation patterns, with this summer being one of the warmest on record in Japan.
Last fiscal year, Japan recorded six human fatalities from bear attacks and saw over 9,000 bears killed. Earlier this month, a bear caused chaos in a supermarket in the northern Akita region, injuring a 47-year-old man before being lured out with honey-coated food after two days of rampaging through the store.
