Japan's surge in bear attacks has forced the government to relax rules on "emergency shootings" in populated areas, amid concerns over whether municipalities can secure hunters skilled enough to respond without putting residents at risk.

From April this year, Japan, mainly in its northern parts, saw a high number of attacks and damage caused by bears, resulting in six human deaths, matching a record set in the year from April 2023 to March of the following year, according to Ministry of Environment statistics as of Monday.

A new fatality record, tallied over the fiscal year rather than the calendar year, is likely to be set following the recent deaths of two men in suspected bear attacks, though the deaths have yet to be officially ruled as such. Experts say an increasing number of incidents have occurred in residential areas compared with the past few years.

The Sapporo local government in Hokkaido said there have been 71 sightings of brown bears or confirmation of their presence through footprints or droppings in September, five times more than the same month the previous year and the highest for a month in the past decade.

"The bears are coming nearer to humans, to our residential areas. What is scary is that they attack humans," said Ryoji Suzuki, 76, who heads a hunters' association based in Otsuki, Yamanashi Prefecture, near Tokyo.

Experts say bears are moving closer to residential areas as rural communities decline and farmland is abandoned, erasing the buffer zones that once separated settlements from wilderness. With fields overgrown and depopulated areas left dark at night, bears can move in and forage undisturbed. Climate change, which affects food availability, is also believed to play a role.

Yet even as bear habitat expands, the number of hunters is declining as they age, leaving fewer able to respond when bears appear in residential areas.

Ministry of Environment-approved, first-grade game shooting licenses for those wishing to hunt in Japan by using bullet-loaded guns stood at 500,000 in 1976 but since 2012, it has dropped to under 100,000.

Some experts argue municipalities should not rely solely on shooting bears.

Shinsuke Koike, a professor at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, said Japan needs a scientific approach, such as analyzing bear movements, along with prevention and public education. 

"It is insufficient to just focus on eliminating the danger on the scene as a stopgap measure," said Koike, who also heads the Japan Bear Network, a nongovernmental group that promotes coexistence with bears.