Almost 100 schools in a city had to shut down due to the presence of a bear that managed to avoid capture. The city of Utsunomiya, located approximately 60 miles north of Tokyo, took precautionary measures after multiple sightings of a brown bear were reported over the weekend.
The bear, measuring about one meter in length, was initially seen near a park on Saturday. Early Sunday morning, it was captured on CCTV footage running in front of two surprised young men in the city center. Later that day, it reappeared in residential zones and was spotted in an industrial area about a mile and a half away from the city center at 4 a.m. on the same day.
This marked the first instance of a bear being sighted in the city, prompting a search operation involving law enforcement officers and a local hunting team that resumed the following day. Residents were advised to take shelter indoors upon spotting the bear, secure their windows and doors, and avoid discarding trash in the evening to prevent attracting the animal towards residential areas.
Authorities also utilized vehicles with loudspeakers to warn citizens across the city. Speculations suggest the bear might be hiding in bushes and is expected to emerge again after sunset.
As a result of the bear threat, all 94 primary and junior high schools in the area were closed, impacting a total of 36,000 students. Additionally, eight high schools, with 3,700 students, advised parents to keep their children at home. Prior to this incident, a bear described as ‘highly intelligent’ injured four individuals in a separate event the previous week.
In another bear-related incident, police and fire crews rushed to the Sasakino district of Fukushima in northeastern Japan following an emergency call from a steel factory. The bear had entered the factory premises and attacked two employees before fleeing by opening a window.
CCTV footage revealed the bear approaching a man in his 20s at the factory gates, knocking him down before targeting a second man in his 60s on the premises. Inside the factory, the bear was observed using its front paws to turn on a water tap for a drink. Updates on the bear’s location over the weekend were not provided.
Japan has been witnessing an increase in bear sightings and encounters due to environmental changes and a declining rural population. Poor harvests of acorns and beech nuts in mountainous regions have pushed bears to venture farther for food, with abandoned farmlands and unattended orchards removing the natural barrier between wilderness and urban areas.
Experts posit that a younger generation of bears, accustomed to human presence, is being nurtured by the availability of human-provided food sources like unharvested fruits and household waste, making for easier sustenance than foraging in the wild.
The Environment Ministry of Japan reported a record 13 fatalities from over 230 bear attacks in 2025, a significant rise compared to an average of three deaths per year in the preceding decade.