Japan hunters Scared of bears

[wildwilderness]

Looks like Japan has a bear problem and their “Hunters” don’t want to deal with it. Strange if you ask me!

They need to open it up to real Hunters!

Japan wants to make it easier to shoot bears as attacks rise

In the year to April, there were a record 219 bear attacks in the country - six of them fatal.

www.bbc.com

 

[Wyfox]

Had no idea Brown Bears were in Japan.
Anywhere Brown/Grizzly Bears exist its the same issue, regulated hunting is the best answer. Give the police authority and proper firearm to take care of residential problem bears.
219 attacks in one year is insane! That is a real problem.

 

[spike.t]

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

 

[Wyfox]

The picture showed them with bolt rifles, but I'm sure having "enough" gun could be an issue for them. Japanese Sika deer are pretty small.

 

[Foxi]

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.

 

[CBH Australia]

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

That’s my first thoughts

The picture showed them with bolt rifles, but I'm sure having "enough" gun could be an issue for them. Japanese Sika deer are pretty small.

I do wonder what firearms hunters would keep in Japan and what sort of hunting culture there is.
Even their agriculture and livestock enterprises are probably vastly different to what I know in Australia and for that reason they may have different tools at their disposal or might not have the tools we have.

 

[mark-hunter]

They need to open it up to real Hunters!

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)

 

[Sarg]

They can have any rifle after the 10yr shotgun start & part of that shotgun barrel can be rifled, strangely the ones I saw had rifling to the first part & smooth for the last length.

Sika Stags on Hokkaido where the Brown Bears are get to a good size, almost Red Stag size, the other Islands have the Himalayan (Moon/Asian) Black Bear which is much smaller but equally aggressive.

A big problem started 10yrs ago after the lead ban, mono bullets don’t kill as fast in the standard calibers the hunters were using for years & no reloading is allowed so only factory load cartridges available, really big problem with the Shotgun ammo as we had many wounded Big Stags with the Barnes Expanders or whatever they are called.

 

[mark-hunter]

@Sarg

What is the pricing for hunt in Japan?

 

[DieJager]

Read an interesting article while back regarding hunting in Japan. There was a western guy who lived in Japan and got his hunting license. There is no commercial hunting. Only possible if you did the hunting course and exam ( all in Japanese).

 

[BlueFlyer]

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

We went over to Japan on a family holiday in 2019 and it is not expensive compared to traveling here in Australia. When we were in Japan there were articles about the problem they were facing with the expanding Sika deer population. The younger generation apparently are not interested in hunting.
Guess it is all adding up to more deer and more bears.
They were actively trying to encourage local hunting to overcome these problems, not sure if that is extending to welcoming foreign hunters.
If the opportunity arrose I would be over there in a heart beat. Japan is a fantastic place to visit.

 

[BourbonTrail]

@Sarg - I’m shocked that they would ever let foreigners handle a firearm, much less hunt.

My 7 years of working with the Japanese daily tells me they are extremely disconnected from anything outdoors related.

Most of the very limited firearms ownership resides in the elderly and rural populations from what they explained to me. They aren’t opposed to hunting or fishing in any way, but they just don’t participate at a broad cultural level (save for maybe fishing). It’s an urban culture, and the youth seem terrified of firearms.

Although, we did manage to take one young coordinator to the Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot…

 

[Sarg]

Emm I know a fair bit about Hokkaido but only a little about the other islands, lots of hunters & fishermen in Hokkaido, even have commercial sale of venison to chillers & professional hunters shooting them, Bear meat is sold in restaurants, the country side is very much like North America other than the Bamboo grass which gets taller the farther north you travel, scary in the taller stuff as Bears are everywhere.

They also have problems with Wild Boar on the other island & introduced Barking Deer.

Those robot Wolves are for scaring Deer not Bears, stupid journalist again, one of the major problems is Deer on the roads, many people killed every year by them.

Nearly everyone I meet is scared of the bears it is a major worry for wild onion, mushroom's pickers & hunters in the woods, common to see them on the news running in the streets of major cities like Sapporo pop 2 million.

Honestly it is a fantastic place with lots of awesome wildlife, great Salmon fishing to.

 

[HankBuck]

Had no idea Brown Bears were in Japan.
Anywhere Brown/Grizzly Bears exist its the same issue, regulated hunting is the best answer. Give the police authority and proper firearm to take care of residential problem bears.
219 attacks in one year is insane! That is a real problem.

@Wyfox - 219 attacks AND 6 Fatalities —— in a Country with the Lowest murder rate in the World…. Bears ”killed” more people in Japan than Homicides?

 

[mark-hunter]

It’s an urban culture, and the youth seem terrified of firearms.

Same as Europeans, then, in that respect.

 

[Hunter-Habib]

In Japan, you can own a shotgun and a rifle after you've completed 10 years of shotgun ownership. Rifle caliber must be no larger than .410 bore.

Ammunition must be lead free and factory loaded. Rifle ammunition available on the shelves is mostly Barnes, these days. Shotgun ammunition is mostly Winchester.

In rural Japan, hunting & fishing culture is fairly common.

The bears that are being referenced here, are Asian Black Bears.

 

[Sarg]

In Japan, you can own a shotgun and a rifle after you've completed 10 years of shotgun ownership. Rifle caliber must be no larger than .410 bore.

Ammunition must be lead free and factory loaded. Rifle ammunition available on the shelves is mostly Barnes, these days. Shotgun ammunition is mostly Winchester.

In rural Japan, hunting & fishing culture is fairly common.

The bears that are being referenced here, are Asian Black Bears.

Yep as I said but mostly Federal Barnes shotgun slugs when I was there & on Hokkaido Big Brown Bears like Russia, the other Islands have the Black Bear !

 

[C.W. Richter]

'Need to go bigger than 6.5 Arisaka lol

 

[Brod]

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

 

[PerH]

I have a Norwegian book where one guy speak about going on hunting in Japan in the mid 50s . He was there as part of work and rural areas he was in. They hunted boar and deer .
He brought his trusty m98 claw mount scoped 7x64 Mauser . And several of them had rifles , 8mm Mauser was a couple he wrote of . And shot guns . But it was interesting to read .

Here is a link about a restaurant there that have venison and wild game and that’s only that for generations .


As one remember of the bow and teppo jutsu , muskets there in earlier times . They took them into the bush outside the war times very much , and often much more than in war