Body Found After Bear Attack in Hokkaido Mountain; Police, Prefectural Govt Close Trails Leading to Mt. Rausu (UPDATE1)

The Yomiuri Shimbun

11:06 JST, August 15, 2025 (updated at 17:50 JST)

A body was found on Friday on a mountain on the Shiretoko Peninsula in Hokkaido, where a man had been missing since being attacked by a bear on Thursday. The Hokkaido prefectural police are investigating whether it is the missing man.

According to the Hokkaido prefectural police, the man and his friend, both in their 20s, started climbing Mt. Rausu, which straddles Shari and Rausu in Hokkaido, from the Shari side at around 5 a.m. on Thursday. While descending, the man was attacked by a brown bear at about 11:10 a.m. the same day.

The friend reportedly ran about 200 meters toward him after the man called out his name. The friend saw the man fighting off the bear, while bleeding from his leg, before being dragged away into a bush along the trail.

The friend reported the attack to the police and was uninjured when he was rescued by a police helicopter. Police called the man’s phone at around 5 p.m., but there was no answer.

The police and the Hokkaido prefectural government closed the three trails leading to Mt. Rausu following the attack. Three helicopters were used to evacuate about 70 climbers and others on the trails.

However, several climbers were reportedly still at a campsite near the summit.

The man was not found during Thursday’s search. On Friday, 16 people, including police and hunters, and two dogs started climbing the mountain from the Shari side to continue the search. Based on location data from the man’s smartphone, the police also used a drone to intensively search the area. A wallet and a shirt with blood on it were found near the site of the attack.

Mt. Rausu, which has an elevation of about 1,660 meters, is located in Shiretoko, Hokkaido, a World Natural Heritage site. Every year, more than 5,000 climbers visit the Shiretoko Mountain Range, which includes Mt. Rausu.

According to the Hokkaido prefectural government and others, this is the first recorded bear attack in the Shiretoko Mountain Range since 1962, when such data became available.

However, there have been a series of reports of brown bears approaching climbers near Mt. Rausu.

Tourist destinations, including Shiretoko Goko Lakes, were also closed following the attack.