Deer are increasing sharply in number around the town of Okutama, western Tokyo, devouring plants and stripping the already logged mountains of new vegetation, thereby, some say, posing a landslide risk.
So plans are afoot to shoot some of them, both to preserve the forest ecosystem and to offer up venison as a local specialty.
Because forests in the area are Tokyo's water source, the metropolitan government has decided to curb the deer population for the first time, metropolitan officials said.