News On Japan

Wild boars tear up Kyoto neighborhood, injure five, flee after 10-minute battle with carpenter

Apr 03, 2018 (soranews24.com) - On a tranquil Saturday morning at about 11:25 a.m. two wild boars described as a parent and child appeared in the Honmachi area of Higashiyama Ward in Kyoto City.

It’s not clear what initially set off the animals, but as we shall soon see: Once you get a wild boar agitated, there isn’t much you can do to stop it.

At this time, a call came into the Kyoto Prefectural Police that a “high school girl was rammed by a wild boar.” According to witnesses, the larger boar was about one meter (three feet) long.

The attack prompted a small panic in the streets and sent the boars running for cover at a nearby elderly care facility, where they rammed into the front door, puncturing it.

In an effort to protect their residents, two staff members, a 43-year-old man and 35-year-old woman, attempted to contain the animals. However, the beasts proved too strong and ran back towards the street after leaving the workers with bites and scrapes to their legs.

Next, the boars encountered an 81-year-old resident and rushed her. As a result, she fell down and received several injuries including a fractured right wrist. A nearby 71-year-old retired police officer gallantly tried to intervene and subdue one of the boars by putting it in a headlock. It was a noble but futile effort though, as the animal wrestled free, leaving the man with bites and scratches to his arms and legs.

By this time, a party of four men was assembled to do battle with the boars once and for all. According to one warrior, an unnamed carpenter in his 50s: “I fought the wild boar for about 10 minutes with a two-by-four, but it didn’t give an inch. It was scary.”

Despite much of the incident taking place near popular sightseeing spot Tokufu Temple, no one managed to record the incident on video. Luckily, we managed to track down an accurate reenactment of the final battle.

News On Japan
POPULAR NEWS

Large Typhoon No. 25 was moving northwest over waters south of Japan at 3 p.m. on September 19 and is forecast to strengthen as it approaches Kanto and the Izu Islands from September 20 through September 21, bringing the risk of torrential rain, violent winds and further damage in areas still recovering from last year's typhoon.

A black bear has been spotted near one of the most popular hiking trails on Mount Takao in western Tokyo, prompting authorities to urge visitors to take precautions ahead of the five-day Silver Week holiday and the approaching autumn foliage season.

Starbucks is considering selling a majority stake in its Japanese business, potentially valued at as much as $3 billion, or about 470 billion yen, as the U.S. coffee chain seeks to concentrate management resources on its struggling North American operations.

Japan's Halloween Jumbo Lottery went on sale nationwide on September 16, offering a combined top payout of 400 million yen for the first prize and its adjacent-number prizes.

A new top-tier "Supreme Class" offering fully private compartments above the level of Green Car service will debut on the Tokaido and Sanyo Shinkansen on October 1, with passengers able to experience the new seating at a demonstration booth at Shin-Osaka Station.

MEDIA CHANNELS
         

MORE Society NEWS

Anonymous and fluid criminal groups known in Japan as "tokuryu" are adopting increasingly elaborate tactics, including a scheme in which elderly victims are persuaded to hide cash inside refrigerators before thieves enter their homes, as authorities struggle to combat networks whose members often have no direct contact with one another.

A luxury mansion in Bangkok described as resembling a palace was being used as a base for a specialized fraud operation targeting Japanese people, with Thai authorities detaining 14 people, including four Japanese men.

Copper roofing has been stripped from Shinano-no-miya Shrine in Oshika Village, Nagano Prefecture, leaving the wooden structure exposed in the latest of a series of similar thefts reported at shrines across the prefecture.

A popular Tokyo nightclub hostess and influencer known as Yamatorino, who says she generated more than 200 million yen in sales during a single month, has been arrested on suspicion of possessing cocaine with her boyfriend at their home in Roppongi.

A second-year high school student was arrested at the scene after allegedly releasing tear gas spray inside a classroom at Osaka University of Commerce Sakai High School on September 16, leaving 24 students complaining of coughing, throat pain and other symptoms.

Police have arrested a 26-year-old man suspected of acting as a top-level planner in an anonymous, fluid criminal group known as a "Tokuryu," with investigators believing he was involved in a series of theft-related crimes in Kyoto and other areas between December 2025 and March 2026.

A 37-year-old man was arrested at Chubu Centrair International Airport after allegedly injuring a police officer who warned him about walking two toy poodles without leashes inside the airport complex.

The number of people aged 100 or older in Japan has exceeded 100,000 for the first time, reaching a record 107,677 as of September 1, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.