The number of bear encounters has risen in recent years, from an estimated 4,800 in 2009 to more than 20,000 in 2020, when two people were killed and 158 injured, the environment ministry said.Įxperts say a shortage of acorns in their natural habitat means the animals are more likely to come into contact with humans as they forage for food. Human contact with bears in Japan is not confined to the dinner table. The firm plans to install them in 100 locations around the country over the next five years. Japan’s biggest whaling company, Kyodo Senpaku, recently started selling whale meat from vending machines in an effort to boost consumption.

That had fallen to just over 4m by 2020, but Japan still has the largest number of vending machines per capita in the world. Japan’s ubiquitous vending machines sell myriad food items, from staples such as hot and cold drinks to edible insects and hamburgers.Īccording to the Japan Vending System Manufacturers Association, the number of machines peaked at 5.6m in 2000 – or one for every 23 people. “Bear meat tastes clean, and it doesn’t get tough,” a Soba Goro spokesperson told the Mainichi. It has a slightly gamey flavour that some have likened to venison, and is often served in stew. The vending machine appeared in November after Soba Goro, a local restaurant, spied an opportunity to use ursine cuisine as a tourist attraction.īear meat consumption is highest in northern Japan, where it is sold in cans and even as instant curry. Leave them in the wild to live a wild life.” Bears are wild animals, not a convenience food. If we protect them, then their habitat and the animals and plants within it also benefit. “Bears are of great significance to the wider ecosystem in which they live. “This feels like another low blow for wildlife,” Nick Stewart, wildlife campaign director at World Animal Protection, said in a statement to the Guardian.

The meat came from bears captured in the mountains by members of a local hunting club who were permitted to kill a certain number during the annual hunting season, the paper added.īut animals rights campaigners condemned the vending machine enterprise and called for an end to the hunting of bears for their meat. The machine, which touts its contents as a regional speciality, was stocked with locally killed wild bear and sold a mixture of lean and fatty meat, the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper said.

Old japanese vending machines