interactive "kuma map".

Looks like Japan is cooked.

Good for them. Bears are lovely.

a working, interactive up-to-date bear map is a sign of competency, not cookery. japan's great, the map is just too good not to share.

Lovely and dangerous; Japan's conservation policy gets that.

YES rise up caniforms

Aww those are just black bears, they're only dangerous like alligators are dangerous.

I was gonna say "they're only dangerous to kids and old folks who can't keep out of their way", but oh yeah rural Japan is like 75% old folks...

Bears are more moving in then rising up.

According to this map, there are bears absolutely everywhere. Basically, the whole place is covered in them.

Black bears attack e'errrrbody, not to discount especially vulnerable human populations, but at least deterrents work with black bears and we have a chance to fight black bears off when they attack. Japan is fortunate not to have a similar grizzly problem.

Forests in Honshu, the main island, and many less-populated towns seem to be inundated right now. I've hammock-camped across Japan for months multiple times without seeing a bear, but I always have a stick I whack on trees while hiking to announce my presence, and it's specifically last year and this one that encounters have increased so sharply.

Yeah Hokkaido has all the brown bears, I understand.

Yea, there are "black brown bears" hang onnn, Ussuri bears. You're right, they're all in Hokkaido, which is far less population and urban-center dense than the rest of Japan, so the Ussuri probably still have more space to roam and less food competition than the black bears further south.

The year is 2026. The bears have taken over Japan. Negotiations have started.

Talks are going well. For the bears...

I would expect those to be the ornery ones out looking for trouble, yeah.

Meh, "dangerous" is a relative term. I looked it up to make sure, and these black bears are are very similar to the black bears we have in North America; they're basically oversized raccoons. Even if you are old, give it a wack with your cane when it comes near and they're most likely to run off. They aren't polar bear dangerous or anything.

Hope the Japanese do not make the same mistake Australia did with the Emus.

13 people fought off black bears in Japan last year and got killed or eaten anyway, with another 238 injured by Japanese black bears last year. It's good to not become over-fearful and it is good to recognize the danger that large wild animals play in your environment.

Education is a good start.

Apparently education about bears has been lacking so authorities are making sure people know not to play dead with black bears.

Oh I'm not saying they're harmless, just saying they're not actively hunting you the way polar bears will.

[..] approximately 220 people have been injured in 2025, with 13 of these attacks turning deadly. In comparison, there are often fewer than 50 bear attacks across the whole of North America each year, which result in about 2–5 deaths annually.

according to this article

Some guy got killed on the way from his front door to his car.

One spanish tourist stopped his bike to take a pic and got killed.

etc

Oh yeah, for sure. Polar bears want to munch!

“It’s a population density map”

It's just one really fast bear

This one can open windows and doors and evaded capture for a few weeks. He got caught today, though.