Key Points
- Bear attacks have reached record highs in Japan, with Akita Prefecture reporting the highest number of incidents and injuries.
- Medical analysis reveals that 86% of bear attack victims suffer facial injuries, often resulting in severe long-term physical and psychological trauma.
- Dr. Hajime Nakae of Akita University is leading a project to develop specialized protective gear and educate the public on defensive postures.
- A crowdfunding campaign is currently active to fund the research and production of bear-resistant hats and gloves to minimize life-altering injuries.
Full Transcript (English)
Host (Fuki Kamai): Good evening, everyone. This is Breaking Borders, or “Breboda,” a video podcast. I’m journalist Fuki Kamai. In this program, we look back at the week’s news from local to global perspectives, crossing various boundaries and walls, and explore what we can do to find solutions. This week’s episode is pre-recorded. How did you spend the last day of the three-day weekend? A week or two ago, we had many gloomy, rainy days, but I hope some of you were able to enjoy the clear autumn weather during this break. For those of you preparing to return to work tomorrow, please take care of yourselves and get some rest. This week’s theme is: “Minimizing Bear Attack Damage: An Emergency Doctor in Akita Steps Up.”
Host: Just yesterday, during this long weekend, news came in of a man attacked by a bear at the entrance of a private residence in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture. While his life was not in danger, he suffered major injuries, including a ruptured right eyeball. According to TBS News, police and city officials found claw marks on a chestnut tree nearby, and it is believed the attacker was an Asian black bear. The incident occurred in a mountainous area where a bear had previously been spotted on a security camera on the 3rd of this month. News of human injuries and bear sightings has become very common in newspapers and on television. According to preliminary figures from the Ministry of the Environment, the number of incidents is increasing nationwide. This fiscal year alone, six people have died from bear attacks: three in Iwate, and one each in Yamagata, Aomori, and Akita. Last fiscal year, there were 238 victims nationwide, with 13 fatalities—both record highs. Akita had the most victims at 67, followed by Iwate with 40 and Fukushima with 24. The six prefectures of the Tohoku region accounted for over 60% of the national total. Sightings are also up, reaching 50,801 cases nationwide last year, excluding Hokkaido (which doesn’t track them the same way) and the eight prefectures in Kyushu and Okinawa where bears are not resident. This is more than double the previous record set in 2023. Akita again had the most sightings at 13,592, followed by Iwate and Miyagi.
Host: In response to this, Akita University is working on verifying defensive postures and developing protective gear to minimize damage if someone encounters a bear. We spoke with Dr. Hajime Nakae, a professor at the Akita University Graduate School of Medicine and Director of the Advanced Critical Care and Emergency Center, who is leading this project. How can we protect ourselves? Please watch the interview.
Host: Professor Nakae, thank you for joining us. I understand that you and your research team at Akita University have launched a project to figure out how to minimize bear attack injuries. Could you give us an overview?
Guest (Hajime Nakae): Yes. Since 2023, bear attacks have increased significantly. By analyzing data from the past three years, we’ve identified specific characteristics of these injuries. Based on these traits, we’ve seen what kind of countermeasures are needed. One is developing “mitigation gear”—things like hats and caps that can be worn while walking to reduce the severity of injuries. The other is “mitigation education,” specifically teaching defensive postures, especially to children. We launched a crowdfunding campaign to realize these two pillars as quickly as possible. Relying on government budgets can take years, and we felt we couldn’t wait.
Host: You are a doctor who deals with emergency treatment every day, correct?
Guest (Hajime Nakae): That’s right. I work at the Advanced Critical Care and Emergency Center at Akita University, treating emergency patients and managing the ICU. I handle both emergency surgery and intensive care.
Host: What specific characteristics have you seen in bear attack trauma over the last few years?
Guest (Hajime Nakae): It’s almost always the face. While the upper body is generally targeted, it’s specifically the face rather than the back of the head. Bears are lunging from the front. I’ve been seeing bear injuries for about 35 years. Thirty years ago, most encounters happened deep in the mountains. People would panic and run, and they’d get bitten on the buttocks or the back of the head. But now, bears are appearing in residential areas. In these cases, they target the face directly. Our data shows that over 80% of injuries are to the face.
Host: It sounds like people are being attacked before they even have a chance to react or run because they don’t expect a bear to be there.
Guest (Hajime Nakae): Exactly. They are often charged from just 10 or 20 meters away. In the mountains, bears are usually cautious and will leave if they hear human sounds or bells. But in residential areas, they are looking for food and have become accustomed to humans. They aren’t afraid to charge.
Host: Recovering from such attacks must be incredibly difficult.
Guest (Hajime Nakae): It is. The first strike is usually with the paw. They have sharp claws that slash the face. Once the victim is down, the bear often bites. The claws and teeth tear the skin and break bones. It takes a long time to heal, and many patients require multiple surgeries. Beyond the physical damage, the psychological impact is severe. Being attacked by a large animal in Japan is an extraordinary, terrifying experience. Many suffer from PTSD, flashbacks, and insomnia. They become unable to go back to where it happened, even if it’s just their own garden or field. Our 2023 data showed that 80% of victims still had significant after-effects one year later, including blindness, facial nerve paralysis, or loss of smell.
Host: If someone does encounter a bear, what is the best posture to take?
Guest (Hajime Nakae): If the bear is about 10 meters away, the most important thing is to back away slowly. Do not run. Bears have a tracking instinct and will chase anything that runs. If the bear charges anyway, you must take a defensive posture. We call it the “pill bug” pose. You interlock your fingers behind your neck and curl up small on the ground. This protects the face, the major blood vessels in the neck, the armpits, and the groin. Protecting the face is vital to prevent blindness and permanent disfigurement.
Host: You’ve been promoting this posture since 2023?
Guest (Hajime Nakae): Yes. Before that, cases were too sporadic to gather enough data for a comprehensive message. But now that we see the pattern of facial injuries, we know we have to teach people how to protect their heads and faces. We are even teaching this to children now because we want to protect their future. While most victims currently are elderly, we want to ensure children know what to do if the situation worsens.
Host: What role do you think the media should play in this?
Guest (Hajime Nakae): Warning people about sightings is important, but simply saying “the victim’s life is not in danger” can be misleading. It makes people think the attack wasn’t that bad. I’d like the media to add a phrase like, “though their life was saved, they suffered severe facial injuries.” Also, just as news reports often include suicide prevention hotlines, reports on bear attacks should consistently show the defensive posture. If people see it repeatedly, they are more likely to remember it in a crisis.
Host: Tell us more about the protective gear you are developing.
Guest (Hajime Nakae): When you take the defensive posture, the top of your head is still exposed. We are developing hats and caps made of a special, high-strength fabric that claws and teeth cannot easily penetrate. We’re also working on gloves to protect the backs of the hands. These aren’t heavy like helmets; they are light enough for daily use, like gardening or walking the dog. They could even serve as general disaster prevention gear for earthquakes. We are currently working with a company called Hirose Sangyo and hope to file for patents soon. We’ve already conducted tests at a bear park to ensure the material holds up against actual bear claws.
Host: Finally, do you have a message for our viewers?
Guest (Hajime Nakae): Bears shouldn’t just be feared; they should be understood correctly. By knowing how to protect ourselves, we can maintain our health and continue our daily lives. We need your support through crowdfunding to bring these mitigation tools to life as quickly as possible. Please help us protect the people of Akita and beyond.
Host: Thank you, Professor Nakae. As someone who worked as a reporter in Hokkaido, I’ve written many scripts saying “life is not in danger,” but I now realize how much that overlooks the long-term struggle of the victims. We need to communicate the reality of these injuries while providing actionable advice like the defensive posture. I encourage everyone to try the “pill bug” pose at home at least once. See how it feels, see if you can do it quickly. It might save your life or the life of someone you love. The crowdfunding campaign has 18 days left to reach its next goal of 10 million yen. I’ve put the link in the description. Let’s think about what we can do to coexist with nature while protecting ourselves. See you next week.
