A dramatic rise in bear sightings and attacks in Japan has prompted one region to run a series of unusual emergency training drills to prepare participants for real-world situations.

At the centre of the course is a man in a bear costume and mask who looks like he might have escaped from a dress-up party or the set of a kids’ TV show.

As the “bear” emerges on all fours from a stand of trees, with goats heard bleating in the background, the hunters shoot him with tranquilisers and then prod him with a stick to ensure he’s out cold.

“I couldn’t see a thing, and it was hot,” Kei Sato, the bear actor involved in the drills carried out this month in Tochigi Prefecture, told Reuters.

“I think actually running simulations and putting them into practice is very relevant to real-world situations.”

Other videos shared online show a row of accredited hunters and government officials practising aiming bear spray at target boards featuring images of bears.

The training may look bizarre but has been sparked by an alarming rise in the number of bear encounters in Japan, which reached a record high last year with 238 reported attacks and 13 deaths.

In March and April, national database Kumamap recorded just over 2000 “bear incidents” – more than double the same period in 2025.

Four people have already been killed in 2026, and earlier this month widely shared video footage captured a large black bear chasing and attacking a worker in the carpark of a Fukushima steelworks factory before it was scared off by the driver of a car.

The fact that bears are increasingly venturing into Japanese cities is causing particular concern, with sightings in Utsunomiya City – the capital of ­­­­Tochigi Prefecture ­– leading to the closure of almost 100 schools last week.

The Utsunomiya bear was spotted near schools and homes, and even climbing over backyard fences, before it was captured.

“There really have been more bears around recently, so this kind of training is necessary,” one bear hunter told Reuters of the Tochigi training drills.

 

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Tetsuya Maruyama, head of Tochigi’s Wildlife Countermeasures Department, explained that an “emergency hunting system” was introduced last year allowing the use of firearms to control bears in urban areas.

“However, to carry the task out, as well as the emergency evacuation of residents and safety management, various preparatory measures are needed and they all require practice,” he said.

It is estimated there are up to 44,000 Asiatic black bears in Japan, with numbers rebounding after hunting controls were introduced in the 1980s.

“One reason this human-bear conflict has increased is because the distribution of bears expanded in the last 20 years,” Masahiro Ohnishi, principal research scientist at Japan’s Wildlife Management Office, recently told wildlife.org.

Some experts say the black bears are venturing into urban areas in a search for food after poor harvests led to a shortage of acorns and beechnuts, which are a large part of their usual diet. Others suggest the changing climate is affecting their hibernation patterns.

The bear seen chasing a worker in Fukushima injured several people and, after becoming trapped in an electronics factory, reportedly escaped by opening a latched window from the inside.

“This bear was seen turning on a faucet to drink water and appeared capable of opening a locked window by itself,” said city mayor Yuki Baba.

“I believe it was an extremely intelligent bear.”

Japanese university researchers who surveyed people attacked by bears in 2023 study found that those who lay down and covered their heads and necks were most likely to avoid serious injuries.

However, Ohnishi believes that preventative measures are more effective than simply responding to bear encounters as they occur.

He urges that forested habitats be maintained for the animals, with buffer zones of “targeted bear deterrence” introduced around major urban areas so humans and bears can co-exist.

“I think the number of people killed strongly impacted the Japanese people,” he told wildlife.org. “We have to make a more systematic way to deal with it.”