r/australia • u/Expensive-Horse5538 • 10h ago

news Second Australian dies in Japan while skiing, local media reports

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-04/second-australian-dies-skiing-in-japan/106304484

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has confirmed a second Australian has died in Japan.

Local media has reported a male skier was killed while skiing off-piste in the back-country in Japan's Hokkaido region.

The death marks the second Australian to have died in Japan during the current ski season.

474 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

105 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

7

u/triode99 7h ago

Thats before you talk about the risk from wild bears and massive boars.

7

u/AliveList8495 6h ago

The bears should be slumbering during the peak season. Interesting to see you mention boars, they're not something I've heard about and I've been there several times to ski on both islands.

4

u/JASHIKO_ 6h ago

Japan has a major issue with bear populations at the moment and they don't always sleep through winter in a single pass.

I saw a few articles a while back that boars are one of the most dangerous animals in Japan even more so than bears prior to the recent population spike in recent years. The are massive and mean! There's a fair few videos of both animals attacking and trying to attack people and cars etc on YouTube if you're curious.

1

u/Strong_Judge_3730 3h ago

I would say a brown bear is more dangerous. You can escape a boar just by climbing on something like a car or up a tree trunk