Bears invade homes in Japan

[Anchor]

Imagine coming home in the evening, turning on the lights, and finding a bear sitting in your living room.

How shocking would that be?

Recently in Japan, bears that are active instead of hibernating have become a nuisance.

Tokyo correspondent Hwang Jin-woo reports.

[Report]

This is a village in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, covered in heavy snowfall.

Through the window of a house, a bear can be seen.

Next to a table with a heating device, it looks comfortable as if it were at home.

The real homeowner returned home after work the other evening and encountered this bear.

[Homeowner: "I came home after work and turned on the lights in the living room, and there was a bear with its head in the heating table."]

The homeowner immediately evacuated outside and had to lend the bear their warm house for the night.

The bear was tranquilized the next day and sent back to the mountains.

[Tokairin Kazuhiro/Director of Citizen Life, Kitakata City: "(At this time of year), we thought bears wouldn't come out. Until now, it was rare for them to enter (indoors), so we couldn't help but be surprised."]

On Dec. 20, a bear also appeared in a residential area in northern Akita Prefecture.

It was spotted in the same location for two consecutive days.

Typically, December is the time when bears hibernate, but recently, sightings of wild bears have been frequent in Japan.

[Koike Shinsuke/Professor, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology: "(Bears) hibernate not because it's cold, but because there is no food. If there is food, it is common for them to keep looking for it."]

It is presumed that bears that successfully found food last winter and the winter before are now not hibernating and are coming into residential areas this year.

Japanese media are advising on how to respond when encountering a bear, stating that bears can appear at any time during winter.

This is Hwang Jin-woo from KBS News in Tokyo.