Residents of the Shimokita Peninsula in Aomori Prefecture are having trouble with monkeys designated by the central government as a protected species because the primates are threatening them and damaging their crops.
Alarmed by the heavy damage to crops and the potential dangers to the public, residents in the former village of Wakinosawa, which is now part of the city of Mutsu, began to hunt the monkeys two years ago but with little effect, prompting the municipal government to take additional measures that have endangered local coexistence with the monkeys.
Nowadays in Wakinosawa, farm plots encircled by electric fences are watched over for eight to 16 hours a day.