Japan probes 39kg of bread dumped in national park

A total of 39kg (85 lbs) of bread was recently dumped along a roadside in a national park in western Japan, prompting police to investigate who discarded it and why.

The loaves were left near crash barriers in Daisen-Oki National Park in Tottori Prefecture between August 14 and 20. The incident has prompted the spread of fake images and videos attempting to link the dumping to a sharp increase in bear encounters in Japan over the past year.

“When I first heard of the reports, my head was full of question marks,” said Koji Iwaihara, director of the Natural Parks Foundation’s Tottori branch.

The bread was initially believed to have been used as bait for cameras live streaming images of animals, but no such equipment was found. The foundation later came to believe the bread had been left to feed animals after 1.3kg of chicken was found in the same area.

Bread was also found scattered around the prefecture’s Hakuto coast, but the brand appears to be different from that found in the national park. Neither the bread nor the chicken was poisoned.