Global Courant 2023-05-16 15:50:00
Early last Sunday morning, Mr. Dropped off Toshihiro Nishikawa by a boat operator’s employee to go fishing at a spot in Lake Shumarinai in Hokkaido.
When the employee returned later that day to pick up the 54-year-old, he saw a large brown bear with fishing waders in its mouth.
He tried to reach Mr. Nishikawa by phone, but was unable to reach him, according to local media.
After notifying the local city office and police, a bear hunt was launched and a human head was found on the shores of a lake in Shumarinai Prefectural Natural Park on Monday. Police are trying to establish the identity of the victim.
Hunters also shot a 5-foot bear nearby that day, The Yomiuri Shimbun reported Tuesday.
Mr. Nishikawa told people he was going fishing, the local police said in the report. They investigate his disappearance and think he could have been attacked by a bear.
A bear was also spotted around the lake on May 9, according to the Lake Shumarinai World Center, a nonprofit that operates the boat, the report added.
The lake in northern Hokkaido attracts fishermen looking to catch Sakhalin taimen, a rarely caught fish in Japan, as well as Japanese smelt and trout.
Bear sightings in Hokkaido in recent years
In Japan, the number of bear encounters rose to more than 20,000 in 2020, the latest year for which figures are available. This is an increase from 4,800 in 2009.
Brown bears are the largest land mammal in Japan and are found only in Hokkaido, The Yomiuri Shimbun said.
A male can weigh more than 400 kg, much heavier than the Asiatic black bear usually found on Honshu Island.
In April this year, a 37-year-old woman was injured after she was attacked by a bear in Akkeshi, a city in Hokkaido, while walking her dog. She was left with injuries to her head and leg.
Earlier this year in February, a man was attacked in the mountains of Hakodate, a city in Hokkaido.
