Man Missing from Hot Spring Open-Air Bath in Iwate Pref., Apparently Taken by Bear

The Yomiuri Shimbun

11:31 JST, October 17, 2025

MORIOKA – A 60-year-old male employee went missing from a hot spring ryokan inn in Kitakami, Iwate Prefecture, on Thursday, according to police, who believe he was taken by a bear.

The manager of ryokan Semi Onsen reported to police in the morning on the day that a staffer had disappeared after going to clean an open-air bath, the police said.

The police confirmed that numerous bloodstains were found near the bath along with glasses and slippers believed to belong to the employee and about 10 strands of what appeared to be bear fur.

The open-air bath is located along a river, and bloodstains were found under a fence measuring about one meter high. A cleaning tool was also found outside the fence.

The inn’s security camera captured the employee heading toward the open-air bath but did not capture him coming out. He was cleaning the bath alone.

Last week, the body of a man believed to have been attacked by a bear was discovered in a mountain forest about two kilometers northwest of the inn.