Wild boars are taking over Japan’s small towns and residents are either too old or too few to scare them away

 

In Iwate Prefecture, only two of the animals were caught in 2011, when authorities started keeping records. In the last financial year, that number increased to 94 Rapidly shrinking towns and cities across Japan are experiencing a population explosion, but not of humans – of wild boars.

Across the country, wild boars are moving in as Japan’s ageing population either dies or moves out. The boars come for the untended rice paddies and stay for the abandoned shelters.

“Thirty years ago, crows were the biggest problem around here,” said Hideo Numata, 67, a farmer in Hiraizumi, which has a human population 7,803. “But now we have these animals and not enough people to scare them away.”

Numata is a relative youngster around here. His friends, EtsuroSugawa and Shoichi Chiba, are 69 and 70 respectively.

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Southern parts of Japan have had a wild boar problem for some years. The papers are full of reports of boars in train stations and parking garages, around school dormitories and even in the sea, swimming out to islands.

Just this month, a woman aged in her 70s was attacked on Shikoku Island by a 79kg boar when she opened her front door. A boar charged into a shopping centre on the island last October, biting employees and rampaging through shops before it was caught.

In Kyoto, at least 10 wild boars were spotted in urban areas last year. Two charged into a school in December, causing an evacuation.

But the animals are now wreaking havoc in northern areas long considered too cold and snowy for them.

Here in Iwate Prefecture, only two wild boars were caught in 2011, when authorities started keeping records. In the last financial year, that number increased to 94.

The influx is the due to two factors, experts say: declining human populations and climate change.

Wild boars are also a problem in Hong Kong. In recent years, the animals have been spotted in densely populated areas, even on the airport runway, sparking dramatic police chases.

Japan’s regions are struggling to deal with dwindling and ageing residents – 40 per cent of the population will be older than 65 by 2050. And there is a trend towards moving to big cities in the south.

There are more abandoned fields and rice paddy … perfect places for wild boars to hide and feedKoichiKaji Farmers are dying and there is no one to take over the land. Take Sugawa and Chiba: both have sons but they are salarymen in the city with no interest in farm life.

Ref: SCMP