{"id":77167,"date":"2026-04-27T14:42:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T05:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/apr\/27\/bear-sightings-warning-japan"},"modified":"2026-04-27T14:42:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T05:42:20","slug":"record-bear-sightings-in-japan-cause-alarm-as-hibernation-ends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=77167","title":{"rendered":"Record bear sightings in Japan cause alarm as hibernation ends"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Woman\u2019s body found in Iwate prefecture last week, soon after a police officer was injured in bear attack nearby<\/p>\n<p>Rested but famished bears emerging from hibernation <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/japan\">in Japan<\/a> are already coming into contact with humans, with the pace of sightings outstripping that seen in 2025, a record year <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2025\/nov\/06\/japan-searching-for-cause-of-surge-of-bear-attacks\">for bear attacks<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>According to media reports, the animals have been spotted with surprising frequency in urban areas in the country\u2019s north-east, with authorities urging caution among people planning to spend the coming Golden Week public holidays in the countryside.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/apr\/27\/bear-sightings-warning-japan\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Woman\u2019s body found in Iwate prefecture last week, soon after a police officer was injured in bear attack nearbyRested but famished bears emerging from hibernation in Japan are already coming into contact with humans, with the pace of sightings outstrip&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":151,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[265,41,65,88,94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animals","category-asia-pacific","category-environment","category-japan","category-wildlife"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/151"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=77167"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77168,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77167\/revisions\/77168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=77167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=77167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=77167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}