Japanese City Closes 94 Schools After Bear Sighting

Japan has recorded about 50,000 bear sightings so far this year, mostly in the country's north-east. Encounters near Tokyo remain rare but are increasing. A Russian hiker was hurt last month in Okutama, and another bear soon appeared in the nearby city of Hachioji. The previous week, a bear in Fukushima Prefecture attacked four people and entered a corporate office before escaping through a factory window. Experts say poor harvests of the bears' main foods, especially acorns, push the animals into towns to forage. Shrinking rural populations have also made the edges of cities quieter and more inviting to wildlife.

Bear attacks across Japan have risen sharply in recent years, with deaths and injuries hitting a record high in the year to March. Local governments are exploring countermeasures, including CCTV cameras linked to artificial intelligence (AI) systems that track animal movements. Population numbers are rough: between 12,000 and 42,000 Asiatic black bears are thought to live on Honshu, Japan's main island, while about 12,000 larger brown bears live on Hokkaido.