Norikura Kogen Bear Alert Data
Norikura Kogen’s bear records are scattered across Nagano Prefecture summaries, a Matsumoto-region advisory, Matsumoto City’s sighting table, local Suzuran planning records, and Gifu’s Tatamidaira visitor table.
Working finding
Norikura Kogen does not have one clean public bear table. The available records are scattered across Nagano Prefecture, Matsumoto City, local Norikura/Suzuran material, and Gifu’s Tatamidaira visitor table. Each source answers a different question.
This is not an official government warning or a complete incident database. The records below are official public records or planning documents. Together, they show the current regional advisory, the current Matsumoto city list, the limited Norikura-specific record, and the separate Tatamidaira visitor-area table.
Official records
What the public records show
Scope: Nagano Prefecture · Matsumoto Region · Matsumoto City · Azumi / Norikura · Gifu Tatamidaira. Each panel names where its numbers come from, so prefecture totals, town alerts, and injury documents are not folded into one danger score.
Nagano FY2026 May sightings
118
Statewide monthly summary, checked June 12
Matsumoto-region FY2026 rows
40
April 1, May 26, June 13 in the regional summary
Matsumoto city current rows
24
May 20-June 17 rows in the city public table
Tatamidaira FY2025 sightings
55
Gifu-side visitor-area table
Nagano’s monthly summary shows the wider bear-pressure pattern
Nagano’s statewide monthly table is the broadest public record in this record set. FY2026 is incomplete, but May is already higher than the FY2025 May row. June remains partial.
The active warning is issued for the Matsumoto region
Norikura Kogen sits inside Matsumoto City’s western mountain area, but Nagano’s warning system is regional. The Matsumoto-region row explains the current advisory; it is not a Norikura-only count.
The June 18 release extended the regional advisory
Nagano extended the Matsumoto-region advisory through July 3 because sightings near places where people live stayed high. This is a warning-status record, not a local Norikura sighting row.
- Initial advisory trigger
- 17 regional sightings
- May 1-21; 2.4x the normal 7-count row
- Current advisory period
- May 22-Jul 3
- Matsumoto region, re-extended on June 18
- Latest week
- 12 sightings
- June 12-17; Matsumoto City accounts for 6
- FY2026 human injury row
- 0 statewide
- Through June 17 in the same release
Matsumoto City table and Norikura local material
Matsumoto City publishes a current citywide sighting table. Norikura-specific material is narrower: one local notice and planning records around Suzuran.
Matsumoto City’s current table is citywide, not Norikura-only
The current city table lists May 20-June 17 sighting rows. It shows live city pressure, but the reviewed public list has no Norikura or Azumi row in this window.
The city page is a current table, not a long-term archive
These are public rows from the table currently published on the Matsumoto site. They are not every municipal warning over time.
Norikura-specific public records are limited
The local record is not a tidy time series. It appears as one 2025 municipal mail notice for the Naranoki district and as planning language around Suzuran visitor infrastructure.
- Checked local notice
- Jun 22, 2025
- Norikura Naranoki district sighting in Matsumoto city mail archive
- Suzuran planning layer
- Frequent bear/monkey appearances
- Matsumoto tourism-center plan, wildlife section
- Site-design issue
- Visibility and greenbelt work
- Plan links dense brush to possible sudden wildlife encounters
- RV / parking issue
- Food waste as attractant
- Plan treats overnight parking management as a bear-attraction issue
Tatamidaira and visitor-area records
Norikura’s visitor area does not stop at the Matsumoto city boundary. Gifu’s Tatamidaira table and Matsumoto’s visitor-center plan belong beside the city table, not merged into it.
Tatamidaira is a separate Gifu-side visitor table
The Norikura visitor area crosses the Nagano-Gifu line. Gifu publishes a Tatamidaira table by distance from the bus terminal, which answers a different question than Matsumoto City notices.
The FY2026 Tatamidaira table is current status, not a season forecast
Gifu’s page says the Norikura opening period is May 15-October 31 and lists the checked FY2026 table as zero. That is the current published row, not evidence that the season is settled.
- Opening period
- May 15-Oct 31
- Gifu page note for the Norikura season
- FY2026 published table
- 0 sightings
- All distance buckets shown as zero on the checked page
- FY2025 published total
- 55 sightings
- Highest total in FY2017-FY2025 visible table
How these numbers were counted
- •Nagano statewide monthly sightings are not Norikura Kogen local counts.
- •Matsumoto-region advisories explain warning status, not place-specific Norikura totals.
- •Matsumoto City current-table rows are rolling public notices, not a historical archive.
- •Norikura-specific public evidence is limited to local notices and planning material.
- •Tatamidaira counts stay separate because they describe a Gifu-side visitor area, not the Matsumoto city table.
Why Norikura does not have one simple count
Norikura Kogen sits inside Matsumoto City’s Azumi/Norikura area, but the active warning is issued for the wider Matsumoto region. Matsumoto City also publishes a citywide sighting table, while Gifu separately publishes Tatamidaira sightings on the mountain side.
The records stay separate. Nagano explains the regional advisory, Matsumoto City records current city sightings, local material gives Norikura/Suzuran context, and Gifu’s Tatamidaira table covers a different visitor area across the prefectural line.
The current warning comes from Nagano’s Matsumoto-region advisory
Nagano’s June 12 public summary shows FY2026 statewide bear sightings at 29 in April, 118 in May, and 92 in June as of that summary. May 2026 is already double the May 2025 row of 59. In the Matsumoto-region row, the same summary shows 1 sighting in April, 26 in May, and 13 in the partial June row.
Nagano’s June 18 release then extended the Matsumoto-region advisory through July 3. The reason was continued sightings near places where people live: 8 from June 5-11 and 12 from June 12-17, with Matsumoto City accounting for 6 of the latest-week reports.
- •Nagano R8 statewide sightings in May: 118
- •Nagano R7 statewide sightings in May: 59
- •Matsumoto-region FY2026 sightings in the June 12 summary: 40
- •Matsumoto-region advisory period after June 18 extension: May 22-July 3
- •FY2026 statewide human injury row in the June 18 release: 0 through June 17
Matsumoto City’s current table shows citywide sightings, not a Norikura count
Matsumoto’s current public sighting page is backed by a published table. The checked rows list 24 city sightings from May 20 through June 17: 7 in late May and 17 in June through June 17. The listed places cluster in districts such as Sasaga, Shiga, Hata, and Niimura.
That table shows current citywide pressure, not a Norikura count. The checked current table does not contain a Norikura or Azumi row. The separate Norikura-specific city record is a June 22, 2025 mail notice for the Naranoki district in Norikura.
- •Matsumoto city current table rows checked: 24
- •Rows listed in June through June 17: 17
- •Rows listed from May 20-31: 7
- •Current table Norikura/Azumi rows in the checked rows: 0
- •Norikura-specific city mail row found: June 22, 2025, Naranoki district
Suzuran planning records explain the local visitor risk
Matsumoto’s May 2023 Norikura Tourism Center redevelopment plan is not a sighting table. It still matters because it describes wildlife as a practical site issue around Suzuran. The plan says bears and monkeys often appear around Suzuran looking for food such as buckwheat, and it links dense brush and poor visibility to sudden encounters.
That matters for visitor risk around the tourism center. The same document discusses parking, maintenance, greenbelts, and RV-park conditions, including food waste as a bear attractant. It is not an alert feed, but it explains why the visitor area differs from an ordinary citywide sighting table.
Tatamidaira is a separate mountain-side visitor table
Gifu’s Tatamidaira page publishes bear sightings around the Norikura Tatamidaira visitor area by distance from the bus terminal. In the visible FY2017-FY2025 table, FY2025 has 55 sightings, the highest total in that series. The checked FY2026 table shows zero rows, but the page also notes that the opening period runs from May 15 through October 31.
The clean reading is not that all of Norikura has one number. Tatamidaira answers a Gifu-side visitor-area question. Matsumoto City notices answer city and local-warning questions. Nagano’s advisory answers the regional alert question. Merging them looks simpler, but less honest.
- •Tatamidaira H29-R7 visible annual totals range: 11 to 55
- •Tatamidaira R7 / FY2025 total: 55
- •Tatamidaira R7 rows within 500m: 15
- •Tatamidaira R7 rows from 500m to 1km: 39
- •Tatamidaira R8 table on the checked page: 0, current-status row only
What the public sources do not show yet
The available public sources do not include a complete Norikura-only incident table. They also do not map sightings against hotels, trailheads, parking areas, bus stops, or specific addresses.
The safest boundary is to keep the regional advisory, current Matsumoto City list, limited Norikura-specific record, and Gifu-side Tatamidaira table separate until the geography is explicit.