Japan Confirms First Fatal Bear Attack of 2026 in Iwate Prefecture

Japan confirmed Friday its first fatal bear attack of 2026 after a record 13 deaths the year before. Reports point to a jump in sightings as bears emerge hungry from hibernation.

A spate of bear encounters last year, including at hot spring resorts and supermarkets, sparked alarm. The government deployed troops to help hunt and trap the animals. The GPS watch of one victim showed the bear dragged his body more than 100 yards from the trail where he died.

Record sightings returned this year as bears woke from winter slumber, local media said.

The first confirmed fatality of 2026 was a 55-year-old woman found on April 21 in Iwate prefecture in northern Japan, the environment ministry said.

Police told AFP that two more sets of human remains turned up this week, with media linking them to bear attacks.

One body came from elsewhere in Iwate on Thursday. Another appeared in a forest in Yamagata prefecture on Tuesday, police said without naming a cause.

Broadcaster NHK identified one as Chiyoko Kumagai, 69, who went missing after heading to a mountain forest to pick edible wild plants.

Police and rescuers started a search Thursday in the forest where her car sat parked. They found her body shortly after 8 a.m., NHK said. She had injuries on her face and head that looked like claw marks from an animal.

City officials said local hunters would patrol the area starting Friday, the broadcaster reported.

Last year's record 13 fatal attacks more than doubled the prior high of six. More than 200 people suffered injuries too.

Bears showed up on airport runways, golf courses, near schools, and in supermarkets and hot spring resorts almost daily. One bear rampaged through a supermarket for two days until police lured it out with honey-coated food, trapped it and killed it.

Scientists blamed last year's surge on fast-growing bear numbers plus a falling human population, especially in rural areas.

That depopulation gave bears room to expand their range, said biologist Koji Yamazaki of Tokyo University of Agriculture in a 2023 interview with CBS News' Elizabeth Palmer.

Bears thrive on plentiful food like acorns, deer and boars, aided by a warming climate, experts say.

A 2025 government report put the brown bear population at around 12,000, doubled in three decades. Asian black bears on main Honshu island reached 42,000.

Overcrowding pushed some bears from the mountains, which cover 80% of Japan, into human areas, experts say.

Cubs lose fear and crave farmed produce and fruits like persimmon. Poor 2025 harvests drove bears into towns and villages.

This year nut forecasts improved, but record sightings followed as bears left hibernation, local media said. In Miyagi, Akita and Fukushima prefectures, April sightings ran four times higher than last year, the Yomiuri daily reported.

Koji Yamazaki, a bear expert and head of Ibaraki Nature Museum, said northern Tohoku residents must stay alert this spring.

"I'm not sure yet why we're seeing this kind of unprecedented damage so early in the spring," Yamazaki told AFP. He expects a calm year overall.

"Given that all the incidents have occurred relatively close to settlements and the bodies have been severely damaged, I suspect a bear has eaten them."

Yamazaki said Tohoku's dense bear population has grown for 20 years. "I also suspect factors such as abandoned farmland and unused land due to depopulation and an aging population have an impact."

Brown bears, which can weigh up to 1,100 pounds and outrun humans, live only on Hokkaido's main northern island. One Hokkaido town used robotic wolves to howl and scare off bears.

Smaller black bears roam much of Japan, including Honshu, and cause most attacks.