In a recent incident at a golf course in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, bears were discovered roaming around, leading to the cancellation of the scheduled opening day of a golf tournament being held there. This marks the second time in the past two months that a golf tournament has been interrupted due to bear intrusions.
According to reports from the Associated Press, the Meiji Yasuda Ladies tournament of the Japan Ladies Professional Golf Association (JLPGA), originally set to take place at the Sendai Classic Golf Club on July 17, was scheduled to run for 4 days.
However, on July 16, someone at the club’s golf course spotted a bear near the first hole’s tee box. For safety reasons, the organizers of the tournament decided to cancel the opening day schedule that was set for July 17.
The organizers stated on their official website: “To ensure safety and consider future measures, we have decided to cancel the competition scheduled for Thursday (July 17) opening day. Details about the event starting from Friday (July 18) will be announced once they are confirmed.”
Subsequently, the organizers decided to proceed with the schedule on July 18 without spectators.
In May of this year, the Twinfields Ladies Tournament of the Japan Women’s Professional Golf Sub-Tour held in Ishikawa Prefecture also had to cancel its final round due to bears roaming around the golf course.
On July 12, a shocking incident occurred in the town of Fukushima in Hokkaido, Japan, where a delivery person was fatally attacked by a bear.
The 52-year-old delivery person, Kenki Sato, was attacked by a brown bear while delivering newspapers in the early hours of the day and dragged into the bushes where he was bitten to death. Due to the incident occurring in a residential area resulting in a loss of life, Hokkaido issued a “brown bear warning” for the entire town of Fukushima, which is expected to remain in effect for one month.
Following this incident, local hunters have been mobilized. At 2 a.m. on the 18th, a resident reported seeing a bear outside their window, and hunters patrolling nearby found the bear’s tracks in the bushes. After the accompanying police officers issued the order to shoot, one bear was captured and killed, approximately 900 meters from where Kenki Sato was attacked.
During a press conference, the Fukushima town government revealed that the captured bear was a male bear, estimated to be 8 to 9 years old, weighing 218 kilograms and measuring 208 centimeters in length, with paw length of 15 centimeters.
However, based on characteristics such as paw size, this brown bear is not believed to be the one responsible for the attack on Kenki Sato, indicating that there may be at least two bears repeatedly entering residential areas.
In Japan, bear-human encounters hit a record high last year, with a total of 219 people being attacked by bears, resulting in 6 fatalities in the 12 months leading up to April 2024.