TOKYO: A record high of 10 deaths caused by bear attacks has been reported in Japan so far in fiscal 2025, amid a recent surge in bear-related incidents across the country, according to the Environment Ministry.

More than 100 people have been killed or injured in bear attacks so far in the current fiscal year, which started in April, with the bear-related death toll marking the highest since records began in fiscal 2006, the ministry said.

The latest occurred last Friday when a 38-year-old man was killed by a bear in a village in Akita Prefecture, northeastern Japan.

Akita Prefecture has called for the military’s help to protect residents from an unprecedented wave of bear attacks.

“The situation has gone beyond what the prefectural and municipal governments can handle,” Governor Kenta Suzuki said Sunday in a social media post, while planning to visit the Defense Ministry in Tokyo before long to make the request.

In the neighboring prefecture of Iwate, more than 30 people have been killed or injured since April. On Monday, a body with wounds likely to have been made by a bear attack was found at residential premises in the prefecture. Police are trying to identify the body and the cause of death.