Should you be scared of bears when hiking in Japan?

8 April 2026

In recent years, the surge in bear attacks in Japan has been making the news. And if you want to go hiking in the mountains of Japan you’ll quite reasonably want to know - is it safe, or should you be scared of bears?

In 2025, 238 injuries due to a bear attack were reported, including 13 deaths. Although this number is a record high, the majority of these are non-hiking related incidents. And if you compare that number to the millions of hikes that people go on in Japan each year, the probability of you actually being attacked by a bear on the trail is still statistically very, very low.

But even if you know logically that the chances of a bear attack are slim-to-none, human brains aren’t always logical - so it’s still only natural that you might still feel nervous, especially if you don’t have too much experience with hiking in Japan. Putting statistics aside, hiking is all about what makes you most comfortable, so my personal take on bear safety in Japan is more mental than scientific. It’s no fun going on a hike if you are going to spend the entire time worrying about a bear popping out from behind the next tree.

A wide dirt hiking trail winding through a sparse forest of bare deciduous trees on a clear blue-sky day — From a recent hike to Mt Iwadono - no bears here!

My philosophy on bear safety

I live in Tokyo and do most of my hiking around here or on the main island of Japan (which is only home to black bears), so this section is specifically regarding black bears.

My general feeling is that there’s safety in numbers. Bears are known to be wary of humans - and attacks are thought to be most common when a bear and human accidentally cross paths, rather than a bear specifically seeking out a human. So my first piece of advice would be to hike with at least one other person, preferably a group.

Three hikers with backpacks walking up a rocky trail through golden-brown grass and autumn foliage, with a Japanese trail sign reading 登山道 (hiking trail) pointing upward — The start of the trail at Mt Adatara in Fukushima

The noise of a group of people walking and having conversation together is surely enough to alert any bears to your presence, not to mention the bear would probably decide against the idea of trying to pick a fight with a group of people.

However, I don’t actually follow this advice myself, and do at least 75% of my hikes solo. So my personal strategy for bear safety is to choose hiking trails where there are going to be other people around.

This isn’t just a bear thing - as a solo hiker I just generally feel more comfortable hiking knowing that I’m sharing a trail with other people. Of course I don’t enjoy it when there are so many people that I never get a moment’s peace, but it’s nice to see another friendly human every now and then on the trail.

Choosing which mountains to hike

So then your next question may be, how can you know which mountains are going to have fellow hikers on them? If you live in Japan and hike regularly, it starts to become quite easy to get a sense for what mountains are popular or not. But if you are not familiar with Japan’s mountains, a couple of easy places to start would be:

Mountains with a cablecar or ropeway infrastructure: the easiest indicator of a mountain being full of hikers
Mountains on the hyakumeizan list: many of these mountains are quite popular as Japanese hikers attempt to climb all 100 mountains on this list

Trails tend to be a lot more crowded on the weekend and on national holidays. For hyakumeizans and other popular mountains, I will opt to go hiking on weekdays, as even then there are still enough people around that I feel safe.

A large group of hikers with colourful backpacks walking single-file through a dense green forest trail — Case in point, Mt Tanigawa - it's such a popular mountain that even on a weekday it was crowded with hikers

However if you are looking to hike a more niche, local mountain, I would recommend the opposite and try hiking on a weekend, to increase the likelihood of other people being around. My personal experience so far has been that for basically any mountain I’ve hiked, I’ve bumped into other hikers on the weekend. The only time I’ve experienced a truly quiet mountain (where I see like one person in 6 hours) has been when I’ve hiked something more niche on a weekday.

A snowy, deserted wide trail lined with bare birch trees leading toward a mountain ridge in the distance — Mt Takanosu in Okutama on a weekday at the start of winter - I felt like I was basically alone on the mountain

If you are still unsure of whether a mountain or the specific hiking course you want to do is popular or not, I would encourage you to download YAMAP, which is the most popular hiking app in Japan. If you search for the mountain you are interested in, you can easily see how many activity logs have been uploaded in the last day / week / month to get a rough sense of how popular a mountain is.

Black vs brown bears

A taxidermied black bear mounted on a log display, wearing an orange witch hat and holding a small wand, set up as a Halloween decoration inside a visitor centre — A black bear dressed up for Halloween at the visitor centre for Mt Aizu-Komagatake

So living in Tokyo, I’m only likely to ever see a black bear. But Japan is actually home to two species of bears:

The Asiatic black bear, located on the Japanese mainland and the island of Shikoku
The Ussuri brown bear, only located in Hokkaido

The brown bear is larger and considered to be more dangerous - and so if you are hiking in Hokkaido, you could consider taking more precautions.

Does Kyushu have bears?

If you are familiar with your Japanese geography then you might also realise from the description above that the island of Kyushu (the bottom-most of Japan’s main islands) is actually bear-free. So if you are definitely wanting to steer clear of any possibility of seeing a bear, then hiking in Kyushu may be your best bet.

An exposed mountain ridge with a winding trail under a vivid blue sky, with one hiker visible in the distance on a summit — Mt Kuju - Kyushu is a pretty underrated place for hiking, would recommend either way

Does Shikoku have bears?

So Shikoku technically has a population of black bears, but they are critically endangered, with less than 30 of them remaining. And they also only located around Mt Tsurugi so you are otherwise quite safe from them there as well.

Brown bear attacks in Hokkaido

Heading up to Hokkaido (home of the brown bear), the statistics show that Hokkaido has seen 70 deaths in the last 37 years to bears. However the majority of these are not to hikers but to locals, especially those who head off the trail to go foraging. And this very detailed post from HokkaidoWilds counts only 3 of those deaths as being from hikers. In recent years there was one in 2021, and then another on Mount Daisengen in 2023 - which it seems has since had its hiking trail closed due to further bear activity in 2025 according to this YAMAP log.

A covered trailhead information board with maps, flyers, and a metal box for registering hike plans, surrounded by green forest — The information board at the Mt Rausu trailhead - you can report your bear sightings here.

The most recent brown bear death was just last year in August 2025, when a hiker was killed on Mt Rausu in Shiretoko. This peak is one of the Hundred Famous Mountains of Japan and so is quite famous for peak baggers setting out to climb all 100 - and so the news came as quite a shock to the Japanese hiking community.

Although the news of this death was quite tragic and shocking, statistically speaking the risk of a bear attack in Hokkaido is still very low.

Should you bring bear spray?

A can of bear spray is supposed to be an effective deterrent if you do find yourself face to face with a bear. As an anecdotal piece of evidence, when hiking in and around Tokyo I barely ever see anyone carrying any bear spray and I personally don’t carry it. However when I hiked Mt Rausu in 2024, I did see quite a few people carrying it. Considering that the Shiretoko area (where Mt Rausu is located) is home to one of the world’s highest concentrations of brown bears, if you were to carry bear spray on a hike, this would be the place to do it.

Although personally I did not take bear spray when I hiked Mt Rausu, in light of the recent death, if I were to hike it again, I would consider it. I think this is more of an emotional response rather than a logical one, though. But when hiking in Hokkaido, I would generally try and follow my rule of hiking with other people around - i.e. aiming to hike on the weekends, and preferably with at least one other person.

What about bear bells?

Bear bells are quite a common sight on hiking trails in Japan, even for ones near Tokyo. The idea is that the bears will hear your bell jingling and be scared off. The only time I’ve ever used a bear bell was when I hiked Mt Rausu. However my experience with it was that the constant jingling of the bell on my pack was really quite annoying, so Mt Rausu was my first and last time using a bear bell.

A narrow misty trail through dense low bamboo scrub, with a wooden post-mounted sign and a small hanging bell attached to it — Sometimes the trails will come equipped with a bell you can ring as well.

There isn’t really any scientific evidence to show bear bells actually being useful, so in a sense I feel like it’s more of a personal comfort thing. Like I mentioned near the start of the post, I think hiking is partially about feeling safe and enjoying your hike, since statistically the risk of a bear encounter is very low. So if having the bell makes you feel more comfortable, then I would totally go for it (they are quite cheap, anyway).

Personally if I’m on a trail by myself and it feels oddly quiet, I might start clapping to myself just to make some noise. There probably aren’t any bears around, anyway, but that’s what makes me feel safe and comfortable!

Bear sightings and signage

A bear warning sign, showing a cartoon black bear standing up with the word warning in Japanese in red text — A rather weathered bear warning sign on the trail at Mt Ono

Even if the likelihood of bears is low, on certain trails there will be bear warning signs at the trailhead or along the trail. They can look quite scary, but I tend to ignore these - you get immune to them after a while.

What may be more important to take note of is if there is specific signage relating to the date of the last known bear encounter. In the case of the death at Mt Rausu, there had been a sign put up warning of a case just 2 days before where a bear had been seen stalking hikers.

A handwritten whiteboard sign in Japanese at a mountain trailhead with wooden trail markers, detailing recent bear sightings — At Mt Shari in Hokkaido, reporting a recent bear sighting on 8/9 (9th of August). 99% of the time these are just laminated pieces of paper, but Mt Shari is also in Shiretoko, so a local mountain hut keeps up to date info of sightings on this whiteboard.

Generally though near Tokyo when I have seen these signs, they tend to be quite old e.g. from a couple of years ago, and note more of a “sighting” rather than any sort of actual stalking event, so I don’t think you have much to worry about. Generally you would be looking to see that the sighting wasn’t super recent.

My one pointer would be to be aware of how to read dates in Japan. Dates are written in the order “year - month - day”. Sometimes these signs can be quite traditional and use the era calendar, which counts years using the current emperor’s reign. e.g. 2019 was the 31st and final year of the Heisei (平成) era. We are now in the Reiwa (令和) year system, and 2026 is “Reiwa 8”.

It’s a little confusing, but if you see a sign that mentions a date like 平成31, that’s super old - if you see 令和8 then you know it’s super recent. These signs tend to be 100% in Japanese, so if you can’t read, it might be hard to know what it’s exactly saying - but as long as the date mentioned on the sign is fairly old, you should be reassured enough.

What happens if you do spot a bear?

Although your chances of meeting a bear are low, the chances are never zero and so you should be informed of what to do in the case you do meet a bear (thanks to Project Hyakumeizan for pointing this out in the comments below).

I would recommend reading some proper advice from experts on the topic - like this one from America’s NPS, which I think is still generally applicable to Japanese bears. In short:

Do not run. Stay calm and talk to the bear in a low voice (nothing high-pitched).
If the bear is stationary, move slowly and retreat, while still facing the bear (but do not make eye contact).
If attacked by a brown bear, play dead - protect your vital spots by laying flat on your stomach with your hands over your neck.
If attacked by a black bear, fight back.

Don’t be fooled by the Japanese serow

As a final point, I would also encourage you to Google for what a Japanese serow or “kamoshika” looks like before your hike, as they can sometimes be spotted in the mountains (and at a distance, could be mistaken for a wild boar or bear if you’re not familiar with them). The main photo of it on Wikipedia makes it look quite white and fluffy, but they can have a darker coat, and when you encounter one in a dimly lit forest they can look rather intimidating.

A Japanese serow (kamoshika) almost completely camouflaged among bare branches and leaf litter on a winter forest floor — My first kamoshika encounter - I didn't know what it was so I was freaked out!

They also freeze the moment they spot a human, which you could easily mistake for them preparing to launch an attack on you. But they are definitely not dangerous and are very scared of humans. If anything, if you manage to take that opportunity to snap a photo of one you are quite lucky. I haven’t had much luck though, and although I’ve come face-to-face with them on a couple of occasions over the years, they make a mad dash away the moment they see me.

A Japanese serow (kamoshika) standing on a snowy mountain trail at a distance, viewed from above, surrounded by bare trees — Alas, my only clear photo of a serow is at quite a distance - taken at Mt Hinata.

As for if I’ve had any bear sightings? I’ve hiked a little over 150 mountains in the past 4 years in Japan, and my number of bear sightings is still luckily at 0. Hopefully it stays that way!

Hi, I'm Emma!

I used to be a complete homebody, until I started hiking in 2022 and got immediately hooked. Since then, I've climbed more than 150 mountains across Japan - from day hikes near Tokyo to 3-day hikes in the Japanese Alps - and written about 107 of them (and counting!) on my blog.

📸 If you'd like to read more posts like this one, you can follow me on Instagram to stay up to date on my hiking adventures.

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Comments

Project Hyakumeizan

13 April 2026

Excellent and timely post. It seems to me that bear attacks represent the classic HILP: high impact/low probability event. On this basis, I asked Google AI how to deal with it. The reply echoes your post and points out one additional resource: a bear map focused on the Tokyo area. 

Here is what it said:

Dealing with the risk of bear attacks in Japan requires balancing the high impact of a potential encounter with the low probability of it actually occurring. While attacks reached a record high of 238 casualties (13 fatal) in fiscal year 2025, the risk for the average traveler remains low if proper precautions are followed.

1. Risk Mitigation and Avoidance The most effective way to handle a HILP event is to prevent it from happening through proactive measures:

Check Local Advisories: Many prefectures maintain online "bear sighting maps" like Kumamap or Tokyo's KUMAP to help you avoid hotspots.

Location Choice: If you want to eliminate the risk entirely, travel to regions like Shikoku, Kyushu, or Okinawa, where wild bears are extremely rare or non-existent.

Time Awareness: Avoid hiking at dawn and dusk, when bears are most active.

2. Preparation (The "Buffer") Carry tools that act as a safety buffer should you enter a high-risk area (primarily Hokkaido for brown bears and Tohoku for black bears):

Noise-Makers: Use a bear bell or a portable radio to alert bears to your presence; they typically avoid humans if they hear them coming.Bear Spray: Consider this your "last line of defense." It is legal in Japan and highly recommended in areas like Hokkaido, though it can be harder to find than bells. Shops like Mont-bell often stock safety gear.

Group Travel: Bears rarely approach groups; hiking with others significantly lowers individual risk.

3. Response Strategy If the low-probability event occurs and you encounter a bear, follow these expert-vetted steps

:Do Not Run: Running triggers a chase instinct in bears, which are much faster than humans.

Stay Calm and Back Away: Face the bear, avoid direct eye contact (which can be seen as a challenge), and slowly retreat.

Make Yourself Large: Raise your arms or open your jacket to signal you are not prey.

Protective Posture: If a mauling is imminent, lie face down, interlock your fingers over the back of your neck to protect vital areas, and use your backpack as a shield.

Emma Goto