Five Surgeries Including Muscle Transplant, But Lost Sight in Left Eye
"90% Suffer Facial Attacks... Protecting Face and Neck Is Crucial"
Amid ongoing incidents of wild bear attacks in Japan, a man who was mauled by a bear two years ago has revealed that he is still suffering from aftereffects.
On November 15, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported on the case of Takashi Okanoue, 74, who sustained serious injuries after a bear scratched his face in 2023. Okanoue, who was farming in Toyama City, Toyama Prefecture, was harvesting persimmons in the yard of a relative's house at the time of the incident. He thought, "There's no way a bear would show up," as he loaded the persimmons onto a truck. At that moment, a bear about one meter long appeared. Okanoue shouted to his family, who were with him, "Run away!"
In that instant, the bear charged at him and scratched his head and face with its forepaws. Okanoue collapsed, and the bear climbed on top of him, attempting to bite his face. However, the bear was startled by the loud shouts of his nearby relative, and instead bit Okanoue's left leg before running away. Okanoue recalled, "When I saw the bear's huge mouth right in front of me, I thought, 'I'm going to die here.' The bear was so fast. I was thrown aside before I could even react."
He suffered severe injuries, including broken facial bones, a torn forehead, and damage to nerves around his left eyelid. Last month, he underwent surgery to transplant thigh muscle to his face, bringing the total number of surgeries to five so far. Despite these efforts, he ultimately lost sight in his left eye and now lives using only his right eye.
He added that farming has become difficult as he remains wary of bears, and as a result, he decided to give up the rice field he inherited from his parents after this year's harvest. He said, "Bears that come down to where people live should be killed. I don't feel sorry for them."
Recently, bear sightings in urban areas of Japan have increased significantly compared to previous years, resulting in a surge of civilian casualties. In the first half of this year alone, there were more than 20,000 reports of bear sightings, and as of the end of October, 12 people had died due to bear attacks.
In response, the Japanese government has begun recruiting retired members of the Self-Defense Forces and police officers as bear hunters, and is working on measures such as improving capture equipment and fences. Authorities determined that the hunting associations, which had previously been responsible for bear culling, could no longer cope with the situation, so police officers have been temporarily assigned to this work. To facilitate bear culling with rifles, the National Public Safety Commission revised its rules on November 6, and the new policy took effect on November 13. Shooting is only permitted when bears appear in residential, not mountainous, areas.
Meanwhile, if you are unavoidably confronted by a bear, it is important not to turn your back and instead slowly back away. If the bear charges, you should lie face down with your hands clasped behind your neck to protect yourself. This is to shield vulnerable areas such as the face, neck, and abdomen as much as possible. Hajime Nakae, a professor of emergency medicine at Akita University Hospital, told NHK that "90% of patients attacked by bears suffer facial injuries," and advised, "If you assume this defensive posture as a last resort during an attack, you may be able to avoid serious injury."
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