In recent years, Asiatic black bears have started entering Japanese cities in pursuit of food, leading to conflict and public safety issues.
Throughout Japan between April 2024 and March 2025, bears attacked 85 people and killed three. 4,309 bears were exterminated. In April 2025, the Japanese Government passed new legislation to make lethal control of bears easier, which was met with concern and reluctance in a country with some of the strictest gun laws in the world. Identifying sustainable solutions to this fast-developing problem requires new knowledge about bear ecology and how people would like to see bears managed.
For her MSc research, Sakiko Miyazaki interviewed public officials, bear management professionals, police officers, bear experts, and city residents in Akita City – a hotspot for increasing human-bear interactions. She documented diverse perspectives on socially acceptable and appropriate management responses, producing critical new knowledge on this urgent problem.
