Amid continuing reports of bear attacks throughout the nation, the Environment Ministry is looking to strengthen its measures to prevent damage from the animal entering residential areas.

The ministry is looking to step up support for securing and training local government staff to enable them to respond to bear sightings and attacks, and plans to allocate roughly ¥3.7 billion ($24.9 million) for designated wildlife control measures in its budget request for the next fiscal year, according to Jiji Press reports. This compares with ¥2.3 billion in fiscal 2023 and ¥2.6 billion in fiscal 2024.

It hopes to increase spending for such measures in line with the revision of the law that sets rules for wildlife hunting. The revised law, which takes effect on Sept. 1, allows people with hunting licenses to shoot wild animals, such as bears and wild boars, in populated areas at the discretion of local authorities after ensuring the safety of local residents.

The hunting of wild animals in urban areas is prohibited except in limited circumstances. The rules were revised in response to an increasing number of incidents involving wild animals encroaching into areas where people live.

To prepare for the possibility of shooting wild animals in residential areas, municipalities will have to ensure they have the staff to undertake measures such as regulating traffic and facilitating the evacuation of local residents. The ministry plans to increase subsidies to local governments to fund projects such as setting up fences to prevent bears from encroaching into populated areas, as well as training personnel who can react in times of sightings.

Shortages of staff and funding are key reasons behind the nation’s growing number of bear incidents and has to be tackled, says Koji Yamazaki, a professor at the Tokyo University of Agriculture who specializes in bear research.

“The Environment Ministry, itself, doesn’t have that many personnel, and when you look at the prefectures that are actually expected to respond on the ground, they don’t really have the staff either,” says Yamazaki. “In terms of regulations and systems, I think Japan has been making quite good progress (on bear control), but the real challenge going forward is that there simply aren’t enough people to actually carry things out.”

According to the ministry, the number of people who were attacked by bears across the country reached an all-time high of 219 in fiscal 2023. A total of 55 people were attacked between April and July this year, of whom three have died.