May 13 (Japan Today) - Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost prefecture, is known for many things. Wide open pastures and snowy mountains. A unique cultural and linguistic heritage unlike anywhere else in Japan. And bears.
But though bears are sort of a symbol of Hokkaido, that doesn’t mean that people want them hanging out by their homes and businesses, which brings us to Shimamaki. A small town of less than 1,600 people, between April 1 and 27 residents reported 25 bear sightings within the city limits. During the same period in 2019, there was only one.
So what’s behind the huge spike in bear activity? A possible factor is an ongoing feud between city administrators and the local hunting association. Ordinarily, when potentially wild animals show up in populated parts of Japan, the hunting association gets called into action to either trap or exterminate the creatures, collecting a fee for their services. However, in 2018 Shimamaki’s payments to the hunters’ association just for the period between July and October came to over 11.5 million yen.
City administrators and some residents balked at the price, which included a 30,000 yen payment per hunter per dispatch. In response, Shimamaki enacted a new ordinance capping payments to the hunting association at 2.4 million yen annually.
