A woman on an expedition to pick edible wild plants in a forest in eastern Hokkaido was mauled Wednesday by a brown bear and later died at a hospital, police said.
The police said Kimiko Kitamura, 42, from the town of Shiranuka, just west of Kushiro, was attacked by the bear at around 11 a.m.
Upon hearing the bear's voice and his mother's scream, Kitamura's 19-year-old son approached and saw his mother lying on the ground and the bear standing nearby.
Kitamura, her son and an acquaintance were on the expedition at the time of the attack, the police said.