Four people have died and over 50 others injured in separate bear attacks in Japan's Akita Prefecture as of Wednesday as bear encounters have increased sharply across the region this year.
On Sunday and Monday, local staff captured two bears in a park located in the center of Akita. The local government has issued an alert reminding residents to keep away from bears.
"The bear was walking on the road. Now, there are many bears [in Akita Prefecture]. A little bear is about this long and tall, like a big dog," said a resident.
According to another local resident, bears have appeared twice just 10 meters away from his residence. They don't eat vegetables in the fields but only fruits like figs and persimmons. To avoid encountering a bear, he has picked all the fruits from his persimmon tree.
"The last one that came was a baby bear, which was here around 07:00. It climbed up the tree and ate persimmons over there. After that, it came down from the tree and ran away," said anther resident.
Sales of bear-proof products in outdoor goods stores in many parts of Japan have risen, and some products are out of stock. At a local outdoor products chain store in Akita, two types of bear sprays were the first to sell out. The sales of four to five types of bear-proof products such as bear bells and bear whistles have all increased significantly compared to the previous two years.
"As the spray was sold out, many people chose to buy bear whistles and bells which are available," said Gaku Yonemura, manager of an outdoor product store in Japan. A consumer said that some local schools distributed bear bells to students for safety reasons.
"For now, generally each kid has a bear bell, which is hung on their schoolbag. On their way to school in the morning, the bells jingled all the way," said a customer.
"Now, I mainly have a bear spray. I saw that others take a bear bell and radio with them to keep bears away. I spent around 14,000 to 15,000 yen (about 90 to 97 U.S. dollars) on this," said another customer.
According to a head of another large park, the park has purchased bear-proof fireworks and beast-repellent equipment to prevent attacks.
4 people dead in bear attacks in Japan's Akita this year
