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Japan's Environment Ministry says 69 people were attacked by bears from April to August. Five of them died. The number of attacks is close to a record high marked in fiscal 2023, with three more deaths.

By prefecture, 13 people were attacked by bears in Nagano and Iwate in the period, eight in Akita and five in Fukushima and Niigata.

Two people were killed in Hokkaido, and one in each of Iwate, Akita and Nagano.

In fiscal 2023, 71 people suffered bear attacks in the five-month period from April to August, the highest number since record-keeping under the current method began in fiscal 2006. Two people were killed in the period.

There were 12,067 bear sighting reports across Japan through July this fiscal year, starting in April, excluding the Kyushu region and Okinawa and Hokkaido prefectures. That figure is up more than 40 percent from the 8,536 reports in the same period of fiscal 2023.

The ministry says if there is little food for bears such as acorns in mountains in and after autumn, more of the hungry bears may wander into urban areas. Officials are calling on people to avoid leaving food waste outside for too long.