TOKYO — When Japanese soldiers arrived in the northern prefecture of Akita on Thursday, they prepared to face a new kind of threat – one with fuzzy ears and up to 220 pounds of mass.

This mountainous region is known for its lush forests, lakes and valleys – and for being a hotspot for this year’s deadly bear attacks in Japan.

“The situation has already surpassed what the prefecture and municipalities can handle on their own, and exhaustion on the ground is reaching its limit,” said Akita Gov. Kenta Suzuki in an Instagram post last month.

It’s a national problem, fueled by the climate crisis and habitat change. Across Japan, at least 13 people have been killed and more than 100 injured since April this year, according to government figures – some of the highest numbers since records began in 2006.

In October alone, shoppers were attacked in a supermarket, a Spanish tourist was scratched by a cub at a heritage site, and a trail runner was forced to wrestle a bear in the woods before sprinting to safety. The problem has become so bad that the British government added a bear warning in its travel advisory for Japan.

In Akita, local authorities requested formal military assistance from Japan’s Self-Defense Forces, saying their existing measures – including box traps and bear repellent sprays – weren’t enough.

But the troops won’t be culling the bears – they’re not allowed to under Japanese law. Instead, they’ll provide logistical support, like setting up traps and transporting carcasses shot by hunters.

The actual culling is reserved for licensed hunters and local hunting associations, some of whom do it recreationally or as a part-time job. But this group is shrinking and aging rapidly amid Japan’s demographic crisis, Reuters reported last year – prompting fears that they alone can’t handle the scope of the problem.

The federal government has acknowledged these limitations. “Local governments and hunting associations, who work together as wildlife control teams, are now severely exhausted,” Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said at a news conference in October. “I believe it is only natural to consider what can be done in response to requests from local governors.”

The National Police Agency announced Thursday riot police would be authorized to shoot the animals in residential areas of Akita and Iwate prefectures, when hunters can’t respond in time.

Local authorities are also considering more tech-based countermeasures, such as AI-equipped surveillance cameras and drone-based alert systems, said Suzuki. Similarly, in central Gifu prefecture, the government is experimenting with drones that play the sound of dogs barking and fireworks, in a bid to scare bears away.

Meanwhile, residents and officials remain on edge. Far fewer people are going camping, a popular activity in the cool fall weather; in some cities, staff are handing out flyers warning picnic-goers not to leave food lying around, NHK reported.

Some Akita residents, afraid they could stumble upon a bear at any moment, have taken to loudly rattling their door handles before leaving the house, the defense minister said, adding: “That is the level of anxiety residents are now living in every day.”

Though this year marks a record surge in fatalities, the number of bear-human incidents has been rising for several years.

Experts say this is partly because bears are increasingly venturing out of their traditional habitats and into urban areas in search of food. Some suggest this is because climate change is interfering with the flowering and pollination of some of the animals’ traditional sources of food.

The Ministry of Environment blamed this year’s surge on a poor acorn harvest – which drove a similar spate of attacks in 2023.

Climate change could also be changing their seasonal patterns; warmer winters could lead to delayed hibernation, which could increase encounters with humans, some studies suggest.

Another factor may be Japan’s demographic shift, experts say. For years, younger generations have flocked to big cities for better job opportunities, leaving a dwindling elderly population in rural villages. That means more abandoned farmland, overgrown bushes and fruit trees, and fewer people along the borders of these towns – making it easier for bears to cross into inhabited areas.

There are also just more bears these days. Bears were once hunted so much in Japan that their population dropped precipitously – but environmental protections were introduced in the 1990s, allowing the bear population to recover.

Brown bears, mostly seen in Japan’s northernmost Hokkaido island, more than doubled in number in 30 years, according to government estimates – reaching 12,000 today. The number of Asiatic black bears, seen on Japan’s largest island Honshu, also rose by 1.4 times between 2003 and 2018 – now reaching more than 42,000.

It has strained the relationship between the mammals and Japanese communities – with government efforts swinging back and forth between conservation and targeted culling over the years.

Culturally, Shinto and Buddhist traditions emphasize respect for life and nature, which are deeply valued in Japan; in Nagano and Gifu prefectures, black bears are sometimes revered as mountain deities, researchers wrote in a paper this summer. But at the same time, bears are a very real danger that can damage property and harm humans – causing a “deep-seated cultural tension,” wrote the researchers.

That tension is evident, with some people protesting proposals for expanded culling and hunting. The conservation group Kumamori, which claims to have 21,000 members, has urged the government to seek non-lethal measures and to regrow damaged habitats so bears can return to the mountains instead. Another group, the Hokkaido Bear Research Society, has vocally opposed killing bears except for legitimate hunting purposes.

With the climate crisis only deepening each year, throwing natural cycles and seasons into disarray, Japan is now bracing for future spikes in human-bear encounters each fall and spring.

“Two years ago, the number of incidents dropped sharply once we entered November,” Suzuki said on Instagram, referencing the 2023 spike. “We are determined to make it through the peak of this autumn season as well.” — CNN