Schools Closed Second Day as Bear Spotted Repeatedly in Utsunomiya, Japan

BASRA, Iraq — Schools in Utsunomiya remained closed for a second day as authorities searched for a black bear that has been spotted more than a dozen times since Saturday night. The bear, weighing approximately 100 kilograms, was last seen 700 meters from a university campus early Monday. City officials closed all 94 elementary and middle schools in the city. Teams from the municipality, regional administration, fire department and hunters' association are continuing search operations, according to a city official. The official said authorities would either sedate, shoot or capture and relocate the bear depending on where it is found. The bear was first spotted in the city center Saturday night. Officials said it was the first time such an animal had entered the settlement, located about 100 kilometers north of Tokyo. According to Japan's Ministry of Environment, bear attacks injured 238 people and killed 13 in fiscal year 2025, the highest number on record. Asian black bears are classified as a threatened species globally, though Japan's bear population has grown to an estimated three times its 2012 level due to reduced hunting. Experts have attributed increased bear sightings to climate change reducing natural food sources such as oak and beech, and to declining rural populations leaving more abandoned farmland that attracts the animals closer to residential areas.