Bear panic in Japan

So, the news has even reached the New York Times:  Japan has had a year of many bear attacks, many fatal:

Akita Prefecture, home to about 880,000 people, is on the front line of Japan’s bear crisis, which has penetrated the national psyche and drawn an all-out response from the government. Across the country, nearly 200 people have been attacked by bears this year and 13 have died, a record. Bears have been spotted in northern ski towns and southern villages, and on the outskirts of cities like Tokyo and Kyoto. The United States, Canada and the United Kingdom have recently issued travel warnings about bears in Japan.

As it happens, I have been to Akita in Akita prefecture, for a day trip.  There's not a lot there, to be honest; but it looked interestingly isolated on the map, and it was a pleasant enough trip from nearby Morioka to wander around a very good fish market with lots of things to eat, and a park where there once stood an old castle.  I guess people would be very cautious about a walk through that park now (although with winter, I presume it's safe.)

As for Morioka:  even in its centre, it is seeing bear activity.  This video was slightly amusing, the way the police fairly uselessly followed the bear around (and beat a retreat when it turns towards them):    

 

In fact, I have to say, Nippon Television News Japan seems to love reporting dangerous bear stories.  They even have a story about to air about the shortage of "bear prevention gear" - such as bear spray, I guess - which I would actually be pretty keen on carrying around on my belt if I walked around anywhere in Akita.

The slightly worrying thing is that in the comments to any of the videos, the public (presumably many Japanese) as really keen to call for culling as the only way the problem can be stopped.   And you get videos of (often old) men out with their rifles or other weapons to take them on.   I think that Japanese men my age and a bit older might often have a fantasy of being a bear hunter and living off the land as a romantic thing to do in retirement! (Well, I know one Japanese man who has so opined!)  

Still, it seems to me that a country that is very high tech in some ways should be able to come up with some better ideas.  Perhaps bear tagging expeditions (tagging with some extra long life Air Tags or similar) then set up a perimeter watch around town, with warnings of bear in the vicinity on people's phones?

Or give long lasting contraceptives to female bears, as part of the problem is a booming population, apparently.

Maybe I'm too soft, and some of the bear attacks do seem pretty mean!: 

 

Anyway, I expect to be in Morioka in January, but hopefully, they will all well and truly be hibernating by then.