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Brown bear in Japan
Japan has been dealing with an escalating bear issue in recent years as it grapples with an unprecedented number of attacks. No one was injured in an incident that recently unfolded on a road in Hokkaido, but the person who owns the car that was involved needed some repairs after attracting the ire of a protective mother.
Three of Japan’s four islands are home to a sizable population of bears that belong to two distinct species. As of a few years ago, Honshu and Shikoku were believed to be collectively home to around 45,000 Japanese black bears, while Hokkaido exclusively boasted Ussuri brown bears thought to number around 15,000.
However, those numbers have likely fallen when you consider officials culled 14,000 of those mammals last year in response to attacks that claimed the lives of 13 people (a record high) in 2025 and led to more than 100 others suffering injuries of various severity.
Experts believe the rise stems from climate change diminishing their natural food supply, which has led to the mammals wandering into populated areas they would have previously avoided in search of food. There have also been issues linked to population trends that have led to once-thriving villages thinning out to the point where there’s not enough human activity to dissuade the animals from entering them.
It sort of goes without saying that you’re much more likely to survive an encounter with a bear if you’re inside a car, although that only makes things slightly less terrifying when you see one charging toward you—which was the situation a one person recently experienced while driving at night.
A bear did some major damage to the hood of a car it attacked on a road in Japan
Japan’s brown bears don’t necessarily go out of their way to attack humans. However, they can be aggressive when it comes to protecting their territory, especially when they’re watching over a cub.
That was the case with the bear that was walking along a road in the town of Bifuka in Hokkaido on the evening of Tuesday, September 29th.
A driver equipped with a dashcam captured what went down when she braked to a stop after spotting a mother and her cub, the former of which responded with the bear equivalent of “I’m walking here” by rearing up on its hind legs before pounding on the hood with its claws.
According to UPI, the driver escaped unscathed, but the same can’t be said for their car, as the attack “left dents, scratch marks and a hole in the vehicle’s hood.”
This isn’t the first time Hokkaido has produced footage like this, as an even bigger brown bear went after a car last year.
Scary stuff.