An incident with an Asian black bear resulted in minor injuries to a 40-year-old man on the morning of August 29. The attack occurred while he was carrying out a forestry survey in a mountainous region of Tenryu District, located in the city of Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. This is the first case of a bear attack with injuries to humans recorded in the prefecture in 2023.
Hamamatsu prefecture reported that the animal was “about 500 meters east of this forest road”, in an area characterized by a reduced flow of vehicles and people.
Municipal authorities confirmed that, around 10 am on August 29, the worker, who is part of a forestry cooperative, was surprised by the approximately one meter tall bear in the town of Kida, in the neighborhood of Haruno-cho, still in the district of Tenryu. Incidents like this have become more common in some regions of Japan, with experts pointing to factors such as urban expansion and the search for food as possible causes for greater contact between humans and wildlife.
The man suffered minor injuries to his left arm due to the unexpected encounter with the animal.
The municipal administration stressed that this incident represents the first report of injuries caused by bears to humans in Shizuoka Prefecture this year. The last similar episode in the area had been documented in 2022, in the Ikawa district, also in the city of Shizuoka.
