FOCUS: Depopulating Japan gives bears room to roam, pushes policy shifts to cull

TOKYO - As Japan's rural communities hollow out and its forests reclaim abandoned farmland, bears have moved in -- and moved closer to people. As a result, a record 238 people were attacked in fiscal 2025, 13 of them fatally.

The trend has forced a fundamental shift in government policy from protecting bears to actively reducing the wildlife population that has, as one expert put it, "just happened to make Japan's serious problem visible."