Old clip misrepresented as recent bear attack in Japan
- Published on November 24, 2025 at 06:49
- 2 min read
- By Sammy HEUNG, AFP Hong Kong
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Japan is battling a spate of fatal attacks by bears in 2025 with sighting of the animals reported almost daily including in the northern city of Sapporo, but an old video circulating online does not show a recent encounter. The clip was actually taken from a news report four years ago.
The video was shared on Douyin on November 12, 2025, with a caption in simplified Chinese saying there has been a spike in the number of bear sightings recently in Sapporo.
It has since received over 200 likes, and shows a bear rampaging in a neighbourhood and attacking a person.
Japanese-language text on the video also says it shows a bear in a residential area injuring four people, including a member of the self-defence force, along with a date that reads June 18 Friday.
The clip has circulated alongside similar claims elsewhere on Douyin and QQ as well as in English and Japanese posts on TikTok.
The US embassy in Tokyo posted a "wildlife alert" on its website warning people to avoid walking alone in areas where bears had been spotted or stay away altogether (archived link).
The embassy noted that local authorities closed a zoo adjacent to the US Consulate General in Sapporo following a bear sighting in the vicinity.
Since April, the animals have killed a record 13 people across the country, with a steady flow of reports of bears entering homes, roaming near schools, and rampaging in supermarkets.
Japan's Environment Ministry also recorded 197 victims of bear attacks between April to October (archived link).
In October alone, 89 people -- a 10-year high -- were attacked by bears, killing seven (archived link).
Scientists have blamed the soaring number entering residential areas on a fast-growing bear population combined with this year's bad acorn harvest and a falling human population (archived link).
But the video was in fact filmed in 2021.
A reverse image search on Google found that the video was uploaded by Hokkaido Cultural Broadcasting on June 18, 2021 on TikTok, which matches the date seen in the video (archived link).
It reports on a bear sighting in a residential area of Sapporo on the day, where three residents and one self-defence force member were injured. It was later shot dead by a hunter from the hunting association.
A keyword search found another Japanese outlet Hokkaido Television Broadcasting also covered the attack on the same day (archived link).
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