What might seem hysterical to Wyomingites has become necessary in Japan — bear hunting squads that train by firing darts out of shotguns at a guy in a bear suit.
The “bear” then falls over and plays dead whenever a dart hits him.
Some areas in Japan have declared a state of emergency after persistent human-bear conflicts. These include 230 reported attacks in 2025, 13 of them fatal.
The government has been ratcheting up its response.
Last fall, the military was called out in response to the bear crisis. Soldiers weren’t given orders to shoot bears. Instead, they were brought in to watch over bear capture operations.
But now, the gloves might come off.
The Japanese government has proposed killing 10,000 bears this year, the Spanish news outlet El Pais reported.
Local jurisdictions have been given discretion to organize emergency bear hunts.
Those could include civilian squads armed with shotguns going out to shoot bears, when deemed necessary, News 24 Japan reported.
News video of the training exercises shows a man dressed in a bear suit lurking amid the foliage.
Men armed with double-barreled shotguns move in and level their weapons and fire darts at the “bear.”
When a dart hits home, the guy in the bear suit fakes a dramatic bear death.
Asiatic Black Bears
In its northern areas, Japan has brown bears, similar to Wyoming’s grizzlies.
However, most of the attacks involve Asiatic black bears, retired bear biologist Frank van Manen told Cowboy State Daily.
He studied grizzlies in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, and also participated in bear research in Japan.
Asiatic black bears are similar in size and appearance to North American black bears. Japan has an estimated population of 42,000 to 44,000 Asiatic black bears.
The surge in attacks is probably due to “unusual circumstances,” van Manen said.
Oak and beech trees, a vital food source for bears, have suffered a “mass crop failure,” he said.
That’s left the bears seeking new food sources and has brought them closer to Japanese towns and cities, van Manen said.
“That was the main driver of so many interactions and conflicts with bears,” he said.
Bears in Japan hibernate during the winter, like North American bears do, van Manen said.
There is worry that the conflicts will continue to grow this spring, as bears emerge from hibernation and start looking for food.
Civil Response
Japan doesn’t have dedicated wildlife agencies, such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, van Manen said.
So, human-wildlife conflict mitigation often falls upon local law enforcement agencies, he said.
“If you don’t have a wildlife agency that manages conflicts, the next logical step is toward law enforcement,” he said.
Faced with the demands of their regular duties, law enforcement agencies might have to turn to civilian organizations for help with bear conflicts, he added.
Limitations Of Management
That’s where squads of certified hunters come in.
There are quite a few restrictions on firearms ownership and hunting in Japan, van Manen noted.
“Not everyone is authorized to just go out and shoot a bear,” he said.
However, hunters might be in short supply, the bear biologist added.
“The average age of hunters in Japan is past 65. Not a lot of younger people there are interested in that. So that makes it more difficult to manage wildlife through controlled harvest,” van Manen said.
The effectiveness of harvest can be limited, he said, and too much could endanger Japan’s bear population.
“Food supply (for bears) plays a huge role. And a high harvest of bears doesn’t necessarily make a difference, unless you harvest to a level that affects the sustainability of the populations,” he said.
Educating people on how to avoid conflicts is a vital part of the response to conflicts, he said.
With no wildlife agencies to do that, it falls on nonprofit organizations and other civilian groups in Japan to get the word out about properly securing garbage and other things that might draw bears into settled areas, van Manen said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
