Japan hunters Scared of bears

[Bert the Turtle]

I

the main risk is shooting in a residential area.
There are solutions for that too.
Bushido ethics and samurai mentality are then completely lost.
Okinawa was probably a long time ago
But it's hard to believe that Japanese hunters would get their panties in a bunch like that.

I imagine educating any semblance of a warrior ethic out of the population was a high priority during the post-war occulation. Sounds like mission accomplished. .

 

[BlueFlyer]

Here is another article on hunting in Japan

Hunting in Japan

An overview of hunting in Japan, including the rules, the number of people engaged in hunting, and the number of animals caught.

www.nippon.com

 

[Berettaco]

I was stationed in Misawa and Okinawa - total of 5 years in Japan - had my firearm and hunting permits. Used mainly a SKB sxs 12 ga for ducks, pheasant and crows. Used an 870 12 ga w/ rifled barrel and slugs for deer. Got to hunt Hokkaido a few times, only saw a couple black bears - no browns. Not saying they aren’t there but I didn’t see any.
The local hunters were mainly older gentlemen who used a lot of sako rifles. Didn’t see but a handful of guys hunting under 60 or so. I’m not surprised if the older guys don’t want to chase down a brown with their 7mm mags.

 

[wildwilderness]

Seems like a great place to set up Bowhunting trips! I know many US bowhunters would jump at the chance. Would avoid a lot of political issues with firearms

 

[Sarg]

Seems like a great place to set up Bowhunting trips! I know many US bowhunters would jump at the chance. Would avoid a lot of political issues with firearms

Not so actually, it is against Japanese “State” Government rules to hunt/shoot any animals with a Bow, there was a local tiny maybe - maybe not loop hole that says varmints (where Deer are declared vermin) can be killed by any means - so logically a Bow is any means but the overall law says no !

But arrows will kill them & Bears if you had to !

 

[Rocked and Loaded]

I

I imagine educating any semblance of a warrior ethic out of the population was a high priority during the post-war occulation. Sounds like mission accomplished. .

Even more than intentional education on the part of the American occupation, the generation that grew up in post war Japan holds a strong anti-war sentiment. The country was devastated and took much longer to recover than Germany. It’s easy to understand why many of them would see militarism, imperialism, and war as costly and ultimately fruitless endeavors.

Even today, suggestions by Japanese leaders that they amend their constitution to allow expansion of the JDF or even develop nuclear weapons are met with internal protests.

 

[Doug Hamilton]

One of the hunters mentioned shotguns....so am wondering what type of guns people are allowed in Japan for hunting....

The people in the picture appear to be police officers. If I remember right, the average citizen must register to own, and are limited to a single shotgun. I would have s hard time taking on a brown/grizzly with a shotgun. I'm not surprised the local hunters are reluctant.

 

[uplander01]

Sounds like an emerging market for paradox gun re-invention to me.

 

[fourfive8]

The Samurai culture was outlawed 1868. A high percentage of the population has been running around in face diapers for at least 20-30 years. Bear hysteria, fear and hand wringing- no mystery for a primarily sheeple culture. Tuned into Kabuki theater, Godzilla movies and Anime cartoons though.

 

[mark-hunter]

You mean loosing national identity?

 

[fourfive8]

You mean loosing national identity?

Kind of. Same for urbanized societies/sub cultures in other parts of Asia, Europe or Western Hemisphere.

 

[Ridge Runner]

12K Brown bears in Japan? Who knew?
$64 a day to walk around and shoot them? Where do I sign up?

+1 My first thought on reading the OP. I would be glad to help them with their bear and deer problems.

'Need to go bigger than 6.5 Arisaka lol

7.7 x 58 Arasaka, aka 7.7 JAP. 174 grain FMJ. Not optimal but still meets their legal requirements.

....Perhaps file the tip down a bit to make it a bit lighter, faster, flatter trajectory bullet....

 

[Ridge Runner]

The people in the picture appear to be police officers. If I remember right, the average citizen must register to own, and are limited to a single shotgun. I would have s hard time taking on a brown/grizzly with a shotgun. I'm not surprised the local hunters are reluctant.

It boils down to ammunition. What are the legalities/restrictions on the types, velocities, hunters can legally use.

For instance a standard Breneke 2 & 3/4 inch 12 gauge 1 ounce slug traveling at 1885 fps out to 200 yards still has more than sufficient KE to down any bear, black or brown.

It would interesting to do the ballistics on various mono metal slugs, using 3 inch and 3 & 1/2 cartridges.

....shotgun....perhaps .60 to .79 caliber buff guns?...

 

[Pirkan]

Same as Europeans, then, in that respect.

That might be true for the poor urbanites down on the continent but here in Scandinavia most youth are either pretty neutral or interested in guns/hunting, it's thankfully pretty rare to find an anti. I'm constantly harassed by my friends to take them shooting/hunting which I gladly do and it's always a good time for all. We can also import a lot of fun stuff compared to the US and own a lot of stuff that the atf would consider machineguns, both the M16 and L1A1 below would be considered machineguns by the atf but are semiauto hunting rifles here. Competitive submachinegun shooting is also a thing in Sweden although it's slowly dying.

As a courtesy to the traditionalists I've included a very bad picture of my 2 Brnos

 

[Rocked and Loaded]

The Samurai culture was outlawed 1868. A high percentage of the population has been running around in face diapers for at least 20-30 years. Bear hysteria, fear and hand wringing- no mystery for a primarily sheeple culture. Tuned into Kabuki theater, Godzilla movies and Anime cartoons though.

The samurai had been in decline long before 1868. Basically the from the beginning of the Tokugawa shogunate. With the end of centuries near constant civil war, the relative peace of the shogunate found thousands of unneeded warriors to be a threat, thus the samurai culture moved to focus on arts, calligraphy, poetry, and tea ceremonies.

Bushido ethic was later repurposed by the ultranationalists in the 20th century and applied to the common Japanese soldier and the empire in a way that had never been done before. What had before been part of a rigid class hierarchy was turned into military propaganda that had some pretty horrific outcomes for enemy POWs, conquered territories, and the Japanese soldiers themselves. My grandfather encountered samurai culture on Iwo Jima and he didn’t find very much to admire in it.

Japan is different from the US and the ethic of putting one’s family, company, or society before oneself is a big difference. But it’s not a product of modernism and it’s common throughout east Asia. With their common language, religion, and ethnic makeup, Japan has, in many ways, a more coherent national identity than the US.

Like many Americans, I value personal freedom to an extreme that would make Japan hard for me to live in. But it’s also a country with a great deal to admire.

 

[Scott CWO]

Interesting thread. On my trip to Japan as a young man, I would have loved to have hunted bears. The only hunting I did there was for beaver. Lol.

 

[fourfive8]

The samurai had been in decline long before 1868. Basically the from the beginning of the Tokugawa shogunate. With the end of centuries near constant civil war, the relative peace of the shogunate found thousands of unneeded warriors to be a threat, thus the samurai culture moved to focus on arts, calligraphy, poetry, and tea ceremonies.

Bushido ethic was later repurposed by the ultranationalists in the 20th century and applied to the common Japanese soldier and the empire in a way that had never been done before. What had before been part of a rigid class hierarchy was turned into military propaganda that had some pretty horrific outcomes for enemy POWs, conquered territories, and the Japanese soldiers themselves. My grandfather encountered samurai culture on Iwo Jima and he didn’t find very much to admire in it.

Japan is different from the US and the ethic of putting one’s family, company, or society before oneself is a big difference. But it’s not a product of modernism and it’s common throughout east Asia. With their common language, religion, and ethnic makeup, Japan has, in many ways, a more coherent national identity than the US.

Like many Americans, I value personal freedom to an extreme that would make Japan hard for me to live in. But it’s also a country with a great deal to admire.

Lots of misunderstanding of that culture, historically. Some I'm sure a result of the military culture that evolved in Imperial Japan just before and during WW2. Other examples of course would include the Hollywood fiction, urban legend nonsense generated around the Ninja. Both the Imperial Japan military evolution and the Ninja urban legend being completely different from the Samurai with little factual similarity.

Here's a pretty good outline compendium of the Samurai-based culture and politics 1185-1868

Asia for Educators | Columbia University

afe.easia.columbia.edu

 

[Doubleplay]

I

Absolutely!

From what I was reading, Japan has too strict gun laws, and declining hunting population.

They need 10 years of licensed shotgun ownership, before getting a rifle license. (no legal pistols)
Getting a rifle to Japan, as foreign hunter is discouraging, or impossible. (As reported on this forum, not so long ago)

Japan is also one of the most expensive countries in the World, so bear hunt could be very costly.

So as it stands now, good luck, hunting bears in Japan. (I would like to help, but I am not thrilled to go there)

I don’t doubt your knowledge about Japan but being expensive is not the reason.
Actually US is much more expensive than Japan.

 

[mark-hunter]

I don’t doubt your knowledge about Japan but being expensive is not the reason.
Actually US is much more expensive than Japan.

It has been quite a few years that I visited Japan (Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, Nagasaki) and US, west and east coast. (Houston, Savannah, Norfolk, New York, Seattle, Long Beach, etc)
In my memory remained extremely friendly people in both countries, easy to make contact with, but USA was much cheaper then Japan cities.
I am not sure how average American sees the average price of living in America today. But by judging the prices of hunting equipment - the USA, is very affordable compared to Europe

There was a strong professionalism culture in both countries, Japan and USA, jobs on all levels done in fast, safe and efficient manner, with flawless paperwork.

 

[Wooster]

Interesting thread for me. I was born on Hokkaido in 1964 and lived in a quonset hut on a small American military installation called Kuma Station (Kuma translates to Bear) outside Chitose. My father (former US Navy) was working as a contractor for a branch of the military then called the Army Security Agency (as the National Security Agency, though formed, still remained a federal secret). The installation conducted communications and signals intelligence operations in the region against Russia and China. My father, long passed now, developed lifelong friendships with many extraordinary men of the NSA that were fighting the Cold War. Several of them still alive regularly check in to make sure my 89 year old mother is doing ok. While on Hokkaido, my father hunted and fished. I still have one of his hunting jackets that has a patch on it that says "Northern Isle Sportman's Club". I will be visiting Hokkaido next year for the first time since we left in the late '60's. Wish there was a way to hunt there. I have investigated it but have had no luck. I would love to hunt in my father's footsteps in the place I was born.