Bear kills woman in Japan, 2 more attacks suspected

Japan confirmed Friday the first fatal bear attack of 2026 after the attack 13 death record last year, with reports pointing to a jump in seeing animals come out hungry due to hibernation.

A number of bear encounters, including at hot spring resorts and shopping malls last year, sparked an uproar, with the government sending in the military to help hunt and trap them. The GPS watch of one of the victims revealed that this animal dragged the man's body more than 100 meters away from the route where he was killed.

Recorded sightings have been reported again this year as the bears emerge from their hibernation, according to local media.

The first fatality this year, reported to be a 55-year-old woman, was discovered on April 21 in Iwate prefecture in northern Japan, according to the environment ministry.

Two more bodies were found this week, police told AFP, and media reports linked the attack to bears.

One of the bodies was found elsewhere in Iwate Prefecture on Thursday, while the other was found in a forest in Yamagata Prefecture on Tuesday, police said, without giving a cause of death.

Broadcaster NHK identified one of the two as Chiyoko Kumagai, 69, who went astray to gather wild edible plants in the mountain forest.

Police and rescuers began a search operation on Thursday in the forest where his car was parked and found his body after eight in the morning, NHK reported. It was reported that he had injuries on his face and head that appeared to have been caused by the claws of an animal.

City officials said local hunters are expected to begin patrolling the area on Friday, according to the broadcaster.

Sweep to the supermarket

Last year's record number of fatal attacks was more than double the previous six. More than 200 people were injured.

Animals were seen at the airport runways, walking on golf coursesroaming around schools and causing panic in shopping malls and hot spots almost every day. A rampant bear in a supermarket for two days it was cooked with food smeared with honey, and the police said that the animal was trapped and killed later.

Scientists say that last year's increase was caused by the rapidly growing number of bears, combined with population declineespecially in rural areas.

That population decline left the bears “an opportunity to expand their range,” biologist Koji Yamazaki, of Tokyo University of Agriculture, he told CBS News' Elizabeth Palmer in 2023.

Bears thrive on an abundance of food – including acorns, deer and pigs – under the influence of a warmer climate, experts say.

The number of brown bears has doubled in three decades and now stands at about 12,000, while the number of Asian black bears on the main island of Honshu has risen to 42,000, according to a 2025 government report.

This has led to “overcrowding,” which has forced some bears to stray from the mountains – which make up about 80 percent of Japan – into human settlements, experts say.

Lambs in particular can fear and develop a taste for livestock products and common fruits such as persimmons.

But a poor harvest in 2025 forced the bears to look for food elsewhere, including in cities and towns.

This year the forecast for nuts and other food is better, but as the animals come out of hibernation there have been record numbers of sightings, according to local media.

In Miyagi, Akita, and Fukushima prefectures, the number of people seen in April was four times that of last year, the Yomiuri daily reported.

Koji Yamazaki, a leading bear expert and head of the Ibaraki Nature Museum, said residents in northern Tohoku should remain vigilant this spring.

“I'm not sure why we're seeing this kind of unprecedented damage in early spring,” Yamazaki told AFP, adding that this year was expected to be “calm.”

“Because all these incidents happened near residential areas and the bodies were badly injured, I suspect they were eaten by a bear,” he said.

Yamazaki explained that Tohoku has a dense bear population as “the number has increased for about 20 years.”

“I also suspect things like abandoned farms and land that is no longer being used due to population decline and aging are contributing,” he said.

Brown bears – which can weigh up to 1,100 kilograms and be larger than a human – are only found on the main northern island of Hokkaido. A city infested by wild bears in Hokkaido robot wolves included howling at animals and scaring them.

Small black bears, meanwhile, are common in large parts of Japan, including on the main island of Honshu, and face many attacks.