TOKYO - More than 40 percent of local governments responding to a surge in bear encounters in Japan have received abusive complaints or gruelingly long phone calls, according to a survey.
The Japanese government selected 40 prefectural and municipal governments for the survey, with 17 saying responses to bear-related complaints had disrupted their operations. Some called on the central government to formulate response guidelines.
Among the 17 local governments, 10 reported complaints that required a lengthy response such as phone calls lasting more than an hour, while five said they had been inundated with complaints through their websites and by email.
Some instances of aggressive requests included messages such as, "Don't you ever kill bears!" and repeated phone calls from the same individual saying, "Put the governor on the phone." In another case, one local government was flooded with comments, including, "Why didn't you kill it?" following the release of a captured bear.
The survey also found that a local government employee handling bear-related issues was targeted by an individual advocating the protection of wild bears, who photographed the employee without permission and posted the images online.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications released the results of the survey conducted over the past year, starting last July. A ministry official said, "Measures are needed to reduce the burden on frontline staff."
Japan reported more than 50,000 bear encounters in the year through March, a record high and double the year-earlier level, government data showed.
