As Japan's rural communities hollow out and its forests reclaim abandoned farmland, bears have moved in -- and moved closer to people. As a result, a record 238 people were attacked in fiscal 2025, 13 of them fatally.The trend has forced a fundamental shift in government policy from protecting bears to actively reducing the wildlife population that has, as one expert put it, "just happened to make Japan's serious problem visible."Experts warn that society's structural problems of depopulation and shortage of manpower to manage farmland, especially in rural areas, should be addressed from a …READ FULL ARTICLE
