• Vacationers stopping at a prepare station in Japan’s Akita Prefecture can cease to purchase bear meat.
• The meat is disbursed through a vending machine for about $17 for a half-pound.
• The meat comes from bears caught by a neighborhood looking membership, and processed at a close-by slaughterhouse.

Japan took comfort to the subsequent stage with a beer meat vending machine at one in every of its prepare stations.

At Tazawako Bullet Practice Station in Semboku Metropolis, Akita Prefecture, passengers can cease by a vending machine and purchase meat from freshly killed bears, in line with a Japanese information outlet. Mainichi.

Mainichi reported that the machine has indicators equivalent to “open 24 hours,” “black bear,” “bear meat” and “2,200 yen for 250 grams.”

Priced at about $17 for a half-pound, the meat comes from bears caught by a neighborhood looking membership. In line with Mainichi, the lifeless bears are processed at a slaughterhouse in town.

—The Mainichi (Japan Each day Information) (@themainichi) April 2, 2023

The vending machine was arrange by folks related to the Soba Goro restaurant, which has an outlet at Tazawako Bullet Practice Station, in line with Mainichi. A consultant from the restaurant advised The Mainichi that Soba Goro is making an attempt to show bear meat from Akita Prefecture right into a memento.

A consultant for Soba Goro advised The Mainichi that the meat “tastes clean, and it doesn’t get tough even when it’s cold.”

“It can be enjoyed in a wide range of dishes from stew to steak,” the consultant advised The Mainichi.

Operators of the machine estimate that 10 to fifteen packs of bear meat are bought weekly via the grab-and-go vending machine. However the availability of meat relies on whether or not or not it is bear looking season, in line with Mainichi.

Bear encounters in Japan have elevated from an estimated 4,800 in 2009 to greater than 20,000 in 2020, Guardian reported, citing figures from the Japanese Setting Ministry.

Extra bears are wandering out of forests and into cities as a result of they do not have meals to eat, stated Yuko Murotani, president of Japan’s Japan Bear and Forest Society. Guardian In 2020.

“If they can’t find enough acorns in the mountains, they will inevitably find them in places where people are,” Murotani stated.

Shinsuke Koike, a bear knowledgeable at Tokyo College of Agriculture and Know-how, advised Washington Post Killing the stray bears in the cities in 2021 is the one approach to eliminate them.

“Once a bear is in a residential area, extermination is really the only way to avoid any casualties,” Koike advised The Submit. “The tranquilizing gun will typically take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes to take effect, so in the process, the bear may act up in panic for further events.”

In the meantime, bear meat is not the one unique product accessible in Japanese vending machines.

In late January, a Japanese whaling firm put in three vending machines in a city close to Tokyo that bought whale sashimi, whale bacon, whale pores and skin, whale steak, in addition to whale meat, associated Press knowledgeable of.

Representatives for Soba Goro didn’t instantly reply to Insider’s request for remark.