A Hokkaido high court ruling that upheld a decision to strip a hunter of his firearm permit has sparked concerns over the impact on bear culling efforts, as hunters are worried that shooting bears in areas with buildings nearby could lead to revocations.
The October ruling stems from an incident in August 2018, when a 75-year-old hunter who heads the Hokkaido hunting association’s Sunagawa branch was asked by a local municipality to cull a brown bear. The man was later stripped of his firearm permit after allegations that he fired in the direction of buildings during the culling.
In 2020, the Sunagawa branch head filed a lawsuit claiming that the shoot had been conducted safely and challenging the Hokkaido government’s revocation of his permit. The Sapporo District Court handed down a ruling in 2021 upholding the plaintiff’s claims, stating that it found no concrete danger of bullets hitting buildings.
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