Wild Animals overrun Japan

An increasing number of wild animals, such as deers, boars, and monkeys are overrunning in the rural Japan. It has been reported there is a damage of 20 billion Yen annually in the country.

I believe those animals are enemy number one in the mountainous area in Japan, when it comes to maintaining small scale farming. Many farmers give up doing agriculture because of the damages.

I reported the topic for a magazine "Weekly Toyo Keizai" this week. A small town of Chiba prefecture has organized tours for city people to find how serious those wild animals are in the area.

There are several reasons why those animals rampage through the rural Japan. Aging, depopulation, rural development, and lack of natural enemies for them can be named.

Joined the tour called Kemonomichi Eco Tour organized by Kyonan Town on January 9 this year, I enjoyed a 3-hour walking in the mountainous area with around 30 people. It costs 3000 Yen, but you enjoyed the barbecue party after the walking, so it was not so bad. And most importantly I could write a story out of it.

The highlight of the tour was to see the local hunters kill a huge boars catched by a trap one day before the tour. They used a special electric bar to have the boar to pass out, then killed it by a sharp knife. A girl at the age of ten from Chiba-city was among the participants seeing the Tomesashi, the final thrust. She replied me "It is not nice to see the animal to get killed, but I have learned how serious the damages those wild animals have caused in the area. So it may be necessary to do so."

Well, she enjoyed the barbecue later.

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