While Japan faces a record high of 13 fatal bear attacks this year, a new trend has emerged in the food industry: "bear meat" has become a popular dish, attracting diners from Tokyo metropolis to Hokkaido island.
Koji Suzuki, a 71-year-old restaurant owner in Chichibu near Tokyo, revealed that since reports of bears invading homes and schools became frequent, the number of customers ordering bear meat cooked on hot stones or in hot pots has surged, leading him to turn away many patrons due to full seating.
Suzuki said, "As a hunter and restaurant owner, I see cooking their meat as a way to honor their lives rather than just burying them."
Similarly, in Sapporo, chef Kiyoshi Fujimoto of a luxury French restaurant has turned brown bear meat into dishes like consommé—a clear French-style soup—and red wine sauce steak, priced around 2,170 baht per set. He noted that most tasters unanimously described it as "delicious and more tender than expected."
This fiscal year is the worst for Japan, with 13 bear-related deaths—double the previous record. Scientists attribute this to a rapid rise in bear populations while human populations decline, combined with forest food shortages, such as nuts, forcing bears to seek food in community areas.
The Japanese government has responded aggressively, deploying military and riot police to support bear hunting and trapping. Over 9,100 bears were culled in the first half of the year, surpassing last year's total.
Japan's Ministry of Agriculture sees an opportunity to turn "pests" into "resources," allocating over 18.4 billion yen (about 3.66 billion baht) to control bear populations and promote sustainable consumption, aiming to provide supplementary income to remote communities.
However, a key issue remains the shortage of authorized processing plants, causing many bear carcasses to be wasted through burial. Currently, Japan has only 826 wild game meat processing plants nationwide, with very few located in the northern critical zones.
Brown bears are found only on Hokkaido island, where their population has doubled in the past 30 years to about 11,500. Japanese black bears are distributed across various regions nationwide. The goal on Hokkaido is to cull 1,200 bears annually over the next decade to ensure public safety.
. SourceAFP