TOKYO (Bloomberg): Struggling to rein in a surge in bear attacks, Japan has turned to anime to teach children how to avoid a potentially deadly encounter.
A short YouTube clip issued by the government aims to raise awareness among children, most of whom walk to school without adult supervision from about the age of six.
In the opening scene, a large yellow bear bounds up roaring and salivating, while the voiceover warns that the animals are often sighted in towns.
Children are urged to stay away from the locations of previous bear sightings and to chat with friends and make a lot of noise on the way to school. If they encounter a bear, the advice is to move away without turning their backs.
Bear sightings surged in the year that ended in March to a record 50,776, with the number of people injured in attacks nearly tripling year-on-year to 238, according to government data. Deaths jumped to 13 from just three the previous year.
Efforts to control the problem, including seeking to hire more hunters, and bringing in the military to help set traps, have so far fallen short. The number of sightings in March this year was double that in the same month last year.
While the majority of deadly bear encounters have occurred in the northeastern part of Japan, the animals have been spotted in many parts of the country, including the outskirts of Tokyo. Earlier this month, a Russian man who was hiking solo in the capital’s mountainous Okutama area was reported to have been seriously injured in what is thought to have been a bear attack.
--With assistance from Eru Ishikawa. -- ©2026 Bloomberg L.P.
