Japan’s hunters refuse meagre pay to face deadly bears: ‘like fighting a US commando’

With a record 219 bear attacks, including six fatalities, over the past year, rural communities are desperate for help – but hunters say the dangerous job simply isn’t worth the meagre pay.

The alarming uptick in bear sightings and related incidents has local officials scrambling for solutions.

Government data shows more than 3,000 bear encounters reported just in April and May, about 500 more than usual. Since April 1, the animals have attacked 37 people across 16 prefectures, killing two.

In Naie, population 4,800, bears now menace the outskirts of the mountain town multiple times a year as ageing hunters struggle to keep up.

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The town’s task force made a desperate plea to the local Hokkaido Hunters’ Association, requesting the group’s 43 registered members conduct a cull. But the offer on the table was woefully inadequate – just 10,300 yen (US$64) for an eight-hour workday.

The hunters swiftly and categorically declined the proposal.

Tatsuhito Yamagishi, the association’s 72-year-old head, told the Asahi newspaper that the offered compensation was wholly insufficient.

“It is not worth the effort because confronting a bear will put our lives on the line,” he said, adding that Naie underestimated the immense challenges facing the hunters in its efforts to keep people safe.

“Forests are their turf and they can see us hunters even when we cannot see them. I know many hunters who were mauled in the face in a flash,” Yamagishi said, describing bears as “wise”.

He concluded with a vivid analogy: “Fighting a brown bear is like fighting a US military commando in a forest.”

Haruo Ikegami, the regional head of the hunters’ organisation, backed Yamagishi’s position.

“This