The last time Sota Keisuke's friend saw him, his mangled body was being dragged into a bush, staining the forest floor red with blood.
Search and rescue teams followed a trail of discarded clothing before finding the 26-year-old hiker's body still hanging lifeless in the killer's mouth.
Keisuke was the latest in arecord number of peoplekilled by bears in Japan this year.
Climate change and a poor nut harvest have forced the animals out of hibernation in the mountains and into residential areas, leading to 13 deaths, around 230 attacks and tens of thousands of sightings this year.
Bears have been spotted entering gardens, homes, supermarkets, schools and bathrooms, forcing the government to deploy the army and issue warnings.
As sightings soar, local governors say they are unable to stop the surge in attacks that have led Japan to name 2025 the "year of the bear".
The encounters are often bloody and at times deadly.
When Keisuke's parents were called to identify the body, police advised them to only look at his face due to the extent of his injuries.
Data from his GPS watch found by rescuers showed that his body was moved after his death, suggesting the bear came back after the kill and dragged him away.
Japan's shrinking and ageing population has also left elderly villagers in rural areas particularly vulnerable.
In July, Seiko Takahashi, 81, was found lying in a pool of blood at her home in Akita, northeastern Japan, with animal footprints dotted around her corpse.
In October, an elderly mushroom picker was found decapitated in woods near Iwate – in the same northeastern region of Tohoku–with scratches covering his body.
And in November, the body of Kiyo Goto, 79, was found in the mountains of Akita. Police believe she had also been picking mushrooms. The severity of her facial injuries suggest she was mauled to death.
Japan is home to two types of bears: brown bears, which can weigh more than 450kg and are found in Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island, and Asiatic black bears, which weigh between 80kg and 200kg and are found on the mainland.
The bears predominantly eat acorns, beechnuts and chestnuts, but a decline in harvests because of warmer temperatures and erratic rains has left the bears hungry and more likely to venture down from the mountains in search of other food, officials say.
Scientists have found that rising winter temperatures are also disrupting hibernation, keeping bears awake and in need of food when they should be asleep.
Urbanisation has also left many of Japan's rural areas less inhabited, giving bears the opportunity to venture more freely than they once would have.
Human populations in the hotspot areas of Akita and Iwate have dropped by 30 per cent in two decades. Meanwhile, experts estimate there are 44,000 Asiatic black bears in Japan today, up from 15,000 in 2012, and 12,000 brown bears, more than double its population 30 years ago.
Dr Dave Garshelis, a former wildlife research scientist and bear expert in the US, told The Telegraph: "People are moving towards urban areas for work. As they leave, the areas are becoming more wild so bears can move in.
"Now there's no buffer any longer between the wild bear population and even the urban interface. They butt right up against these places with dense housing developments.
"As they get habituated to people, they end up walking down the street like a dog and looking in garbage cans."
Hunting also used to help control population numbers, but licences are down from 517,800 in 1975 to 213,400 in 2020.
The spate of attacks has fuelled a row between the government, conservationists, hunters and the public in Japan, with groups at odds on how to protect themselves and the animals.
Some call for leniency for the bears, casting them as victims of human-caused climate change. Others say the deadly animals should be culled.
Dr Garshelis said: "The number of attacks is more than anybody would have expected.
"The attacks are not really caused by things that people are doing wrong – sometimes people are just walking in some area and a bear comes bolting out and attacks them, which is pretty unusual. It's not a prey thing and it's not like the bears are malnourished."
The scientist recommends "habitat manipulations" to make the urban areas less attractive, including using bear-proof bins.
He also believes in culling, suggesting that Japan could invite international hunters to help control numbers.
"The part of this demographic issue is that the people that were the traditional hunters have aged and there isn't a crop of young people who want to hunt, so the level of hunting has become quite low," Dr Garshelis added.
"There needs to be more emphasis on having prefectural governments hiring wildlife biologists to manage and track populations."
Ohnishi Naoki, a scientist and expert on bears, said the casualty numbers are comparable to natural disasters like tsunamis.
He told Japanese news outlet Nippon: "In the short term, I support combining local government and hunting association efforts with self-defence force assistance. Police should also use rifles and municipalities should employ 'government hunters'.
"In the medium to long term, we'll have to go into the mountains and actively reduce the bear population," he added.
The government has now allocated a larger budget to recruit bear hunters and relaxed gun laws to make it easier for people to shoot bears.
Robot wolves with red eyes are also being used to deter the animals, glowing red and making noises when approached.
However, experienced hunters are still often left to deal with the dangerous animals themselves.
Katsuo Harada, an 84-year-old bear hunter, trains two apprentices and still goes into the wild to hunt down the animals, according to CNN.
Nearly 20 years ago, a bear gouged out his eye and mauled his ear.
The animal's skull still sits beside him today, a reminder of how quickly predator can become prey.
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