Until bears settle in for the winter, people should remain vigilant on roads, even in urban areas, following a record number of bear sightings in Japan earlier this year.
Conventional wisdom suggests that bears descend from mountains or explore new trails in search of food. Some public data also link the frequent recent sightings of bear cubs in residential areas to the fact that their parents were killed or captured by hunters, leaving the cubs to roam alone in the wild.
In an effort to reduce the danger bears pose to humans, several municipalities across Japan have begun using an artificial intelligence-assisted surveillance system to pinpoint bear locations when they wander onto farmland roads and into urban areas.
Cameras have been installed along riversides, mountain roads and in residential areas with the cooperation of private companies. The images captured by these devices are analyzed 24 hours a day to notify authorities and residents when bears are spotted, helping to ensure public safety.
The system was jointly developed by Hokutsu Co, a communications systems company based in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, and a special laboratory of Hokuriku Electric Power Co. It is currently used by nearly 20 prefectural and city governments.
Preliminary figures from the country's environment ministry on the number of bear sightings from April through July totaled 10,704, far exceeding the 8,536 cases over the same period last year, which saw the largest number of human casualties on record.
As of July, 2,471 bears had been killed or captured, while from April to August, there were 56 incidents involving human casualties, affecting 58 people, including two fatalities.
Brown bears in Hokkaido and black bears in Honshu and Shikoku are the two species that inhabit Japan, living in at least 34 prefectures, according to the ministry. However, the number of "urban bears" venturing into human settlements in search of food is on the rise.
In recent months, national and local headlines reported incidents of people encountering bears, including one spotted playing in a river at a popular tourist spot. In another case, a mother holding her baby kicked a charging bear after encountering what appeared to be a family of three before fleeing to safety.
Another bear was detected shortly before dawn on May 23 in a residential area of Komatsu, Ishikawa Prefecture, through the AI-based system, which sent an instant message alert to a city official.
It included an image of the animal walking down the road and the address and map of the location where the photo was taken.
The official then contacted a nearby junior high school and police before notifying residents of the potential danger via his instant messaging account. The junior high school took precautions to ensure students were not harmed while commuting to school.
The system works by having cameras detect moving objects and capture them. The data is then sent to the AI, which has been trained on around 50,000 bear images and sends an alert only if it identifies the object as a bear.
In Komatsu, 227 bear sightings were reported in 2020, prompting the adoption of the new system the following year. In 2023, sightings dropped to just 15, but despite these efforts, a man was mauled and seriously injured by a bear in October of that year.
Daisuke Hanida, a counselor for Komatsu's agriculture, forestry and fisheries division, explained that installing the cameras in residential areas in close proximity to mountain forests, where bears forage for acorns and other nuts, can lead to early detection.
The adoption of the system has seemingly lessened the heavy reliance on local hunters -- traditionally the principal resource to cope with the threats posed by bears and other animals.
"Now we can dispatch hunters based on reliable information," said Yoshinori Honda, director of the Ishikawa prefectural hunters' association, praising the new AI technology. He has received requests from the local governments to hunt more bears.
The Environment Ministry first began trials in Toyama Prefecture to determine whether Hokutsu's AI-based reporting system could detect bears using images from existing surveillance cameras.
Municipal governments that have already introduced the system include the prefectures of Gunma, Ishikawa, Kanagawa, Toyama and Yamagata, along with the cities of Fukui, Kobe, Komatsu and Toyama. Meanwhile, the northeastern cities of Akita and Hanamaki have opted reporting systems different from Hokutsu's.
A central government meeting held last month to discuss countermeasures against bears took place just before the period when more urban bears are expected to appear as winter approaches.
"There is a possibility that more human casualties will occur from September and beyond, and extreme vigilance is needed until the bears hibernate," one expert said at the meeting hosted by the Environment Ministry.
Hiroshi Saito, a professor at the University of Aizu in Fukushima Prefecture, points out that bears tend to frequent residential areas no matter how many times they are sent packing.
"No matter how many times you chase a bear away, it will come back to places inhabited by people," Saito said.
Even so, he is not opposed to a more aggressive approach, having developed a system that emits strong lights and sirens to drive the animal away once detected by an AI-based camera.
Twenty such cameras have been installed in six locations in Fukushima Prefecture to determine the system's effectiveness.
Whether it will ultimately succeed remains to be seen. In the meantime, staying vigilant in bear territory may be the best advice.
