On Wednesday, police found a dead man apparently attacked by a bear in another part of Iwate. Local broadcaster TV Iwate said his head and torso had been separated.
On Saturday, in the central prefecture of Nagano, the body of a 78-year-old man with multiple claw marks was found.
While police highly suspect they died in bear attacks, the cause of death is still under investigation.
Between April and September, 103 people nationwide suffered injuries caused by bears, according to the environment ministry.
On Tuesday, an agitated bear roamed the aisles of a supermarket in Gunma, north of Tokyo, injuring two men and frightening shoppers.
The store is close to mountainous areas, but has never had bears come near before, Hiroshi Horikawa, a management planning official at the grocery store chain, told AFP.
On Sunday, a Spanish tourist was attacked by a bear at a bus stop in the scenic Shirakawa-go village in central Japan.
Among the latest confirmed fatalities was a woman in her 70s who died last week while picking mushrooms in northern Miyagi region with three friends, one of whom is missing.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/japan-apparent-bear-attack-man-killed-5394116
