Utsunomiya, Tochigi Pref. – Utsunomiya was on edge.

It was early June and a bear was running rampant in the Tochigi Prefectural capital, throwing the city of 500,000 into a state of paralysis.

Schools were closed, residents were frantically checking their gardens for any signs of the animal and specialists from the local zoo were deployed to bring the bear under control.

The three-day chase ended when a zookeeper shot the bear with a tranquilizer gun near a private residence.

The dramatic episode, which was widely shown on TV and the internet, was the latest in a growing number of conflicts between humans and bears in Japan.

Following last fiscal year’s record-breaking number of bear-related incidents — nationwide, 238 people were attacked and 13 were killed — Japan is bracing for another pre-hibernation surge in sightings, encounters and attacks this fall.…