Japan has deployed troops to help counter a surge of bear attacks that have terrified residents in a mountainous region in the northern prefecture of Akita.

In the last seven months, at least 12 people have been killed and more than 100 injured in bear attacks across Japan, according to Ministry of the Environment statistics at the end of October.

The military move on Wednesday comes as these reports of sometimes deadly encounters with brown bears and Asiatic black bears are being documented almost daily before hibernation season, as the bears forage for food. They have been seen near schools, train stations, supermarkets and at a hot springs resort.

The growing bear population’s encroachment into residential areas is happening in a region with a rapidly ageing and declining human popul

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