Japan has added to its large and eclectic pool of vending machines with a new model that sells fresh bear meat – and which has proved an unlikely hit.
The machine, in the northern prefecture of Akita, has attracted a steady stream of customers since it was installed at the end of last year, according to media reports.
The meat, which sells for ¥2,200 (£13/$16.50) per 250g, is proving popular with passengers alighting at a nearby railway station in the town of Semboku, but the operator has also received requests for mail order deliveries from Tokyo, about 400km away.
The machine, which touts its contents as a regional speciality, was stocked with locally killed wild bear and sold a mixture of lean and fatty meat, the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper said.
The meat came from bears captured in the mountains by members of a local hunting club who were permitted to kill a certain number during the annual hunting season, the paper added.
But animals rights campaigners condemned the vending machine enterprise and called for an end to the hunting of bears for their meat.
“This feels like another low blow for wildlife,” Nick Stewart, wildlife campaign director at World Animal Protection, said in a statement to the Guardian.
“Bears are of great significance to the wider ecosystem in which they live. If we protect them, then their habitat and the animals and plants within it also benefit. This is animal exploitation gone mad. Bears are wild animals, not a convenience food. Leave them in the wild to live a wild life.”
The vending machine appeared in November after Soba Goro, a local restaurant, spied an opportunity to use ursine cuisine as a tourist attraction.
Bear meat consumption is highest in northern Japan, where it is sold in cans and even as instant curry. It has a slightly gamey flavour that some have likened to venison, and is often served in stew.
“Bear meat tastes clean, and it doesn’t get tough,” a Soba Goro spokesperson told the Mainichi.
Japan’s ubiquitous vending machines sell myriad food items, from staples such as hot and cold drinks to edible insects and hamburgers.
According to the Japan Vending System Manufacturers Association, the number of machines peaked at 5.6m in 2000 – or one for every 23 people. That had fallen to just over 4m by 2020, but Japan still has the largest number of vending machines per capita in the world.
Japan’s biggest whaling company, Kyodo Senpaku, recently started selling whale meat from vending machines in an effort to boost consumption. The firm plans to install them in 100 locations around the country over the next five years.
Human contact with bears in Japan is not confined to the dinner table. The number of bear encounters has risen in recent years, from an estimated 4,800 in 2009 to more than 20,000 in 2020, when two people were killed and 158 injured, the environment ministry said.
Experts say a shortage of acorns in their natural habitat means the animals are more likely to come into contact with humans as they forage for food. About 40% of the encounters in 2020 occurred in residential and urban areas, or on agricultural land, the Yomiuri Shimbun said.
In Japan’s deadliest bear attacks, known collectively as the Sankebetsu incident, an 8.85ft (2.7m) brown bear weighing more than 300kg killed seven villagers and injured three others on the northern main island of Hokkaido in 1915. The bear was tracked down and shot dead by a hunter.
