An army truck, several jeeps, and more than a dozen soldiers, some carrying body armour, gathered on Wednesday morning in Kazuno, a town of around 30,000 people known for its hot springs, dramatic landscapes and variety of sweet apples.
The troops will help transport, set and inspect the box traps used to capture the bears, but the culling will be left to trained hunters with weapons more suited to that purpose.
ATTACKS IN SUPERMARKET, HOT SPRING RESORT
Rising bear numbers, climate change-driven shifts in natural food sources and depopulation of rural areas are increasingly bringing people into contact with bears in Japan. An ageing band of hunters that authorities once relied on is overwhelmed.
In recent months, bears have attacked customers inside a supermarket, jumped a tourist waiting at a bus stop near a UNESCO World Heritage site and mutilated a worker cleaning out a bath at a hot spring resort.
Japanese black bears, common across most of the country, can weigh up to 130kg. Brown bears on the northern island of Hokkaido can weigh as much as 400kg.
Japan previously deployed the military to assist in wildlife control around a decade ago, when they provided aerial surveillance for hunts of wild deer. Elsewhere, the British army provided logistical support in the mass culling of animals infected with foot-and-mouth disease in 2001.
Source: CNA
