Bear Sightings in Japan Continue; All 94 Schools in Utsunomiya City Closed

(CNA, Tokyo, June 8, Combined Foreign News) Due to successive sightings of bears in the urban areas of Utsunomiya City, Tochigi Prefecture, the Utsunomiya City Board of Education decided today to temporarily close all 94 municipal elementary and junior high schools. The city government has also established a Dangerous Bird and Animal Task Force and is on alert in cooperation with the police and hunting associations.

According to Kyodo News, the Utsunomiya City Board of Education stated, "Bears are moving across a wide area within the city, and we are prioritizing the safety of schoolchildren."

The Utsunomiya City Government and police reported that a resident called the police around 6:30 a.m. on the 6th of this month, reporting seeing an animal suspected to be a bear, about 60 cm in length, in the mountainous area of Nagaoka-cho. From the evening of the same day, reports of bears appearing in the city area began to come in one after another. By around 4:30 a.m. today, the bear was confirmed to be about 3 kilometers southwest of JR Utsunomiya Station.

Footage from a security camera at the Utsunomiya shopping street "Orion Street" showed a bear running and crossing the road around 2:20 a.m. yesterday.

Matsuda Noriko, the secretary-general of the shopping street association, pointed out, "This is the first time something like this has happened, and I am quite surprised. It's in a place with many people and cars. If bears continue to appear, we are considering countermeasures."

According to Tochigi TV (GYT), some of the locations where bears appeared are not far from schools.

The Utsunomiya City Government stated that no injuries have been reported due to the bear's influence so far. Police and others are patrolling today as well, calling on residents to be careful. (Translation: Yang Weijing) 1150608