Due to the increasing number of bear attacks, Japan wants to make it easier to shoot the animals near residential areas, but hunters say this would be too risky.
By April of this year, 219 attacks had occurred, of which 6 had a fatal outcome.
In recent months, there have been deadly attacks, as bears enter populated areas.
It is believed that some of them see humans as prey.
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Bear numbers are on the rise, especially outside cities, as Japan's population ages.
The consequences of the attacks were dangerous, although they mostly resulted in injuries rather than deaths.
Under current law, licensed hunters can only shoot weapons with police approval.
The government plans to amend the law at the next parliamentary session so that weapons can be used more freely.
For example, hunters will be allowed to shoot in situations where there is a risk of the bear harming people, such as when the animal enters a building.
And the hunters are careful.
"It is scary and quite dangerous to encounter a bear.
"No one guarantees that they can be killed by shooting," said Satoshi Saito, executive director of the Hokkaido Hunters Association.
"If we don't bypass the vital point to prevent the bear from moving, it can escape and attack others.
"Who will she be responsible for?" he added.
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Hokkaido has a special problem.
The country's northernmost island is sparsely populated, but the bear population has more than doubled since 1990, according to government data.
There are now about 12.000 brown bears, which are known to be more aggressive than black bears, of which experts estimate there are about 10.000 in Japan.
Local authorities tried different strategies to keep bears away from people.
Some have acquired unusual guardians, robot wolves with red eyes that eerily howl, while others in the country are testing an artificial intelligence warning system.
The city of Naie on the island of Hokkaido is trying to hire hunters to patrol the streets, set traps and kill animals, if necessary, for ¥10.300 ($64; £50).
However, there are few who would do it, because it is a risky job, the salary is not attractive enough and many hunters are older.
"Dealing with bears puts our lives on the line," a 72-year-old hunter from the area told the paper. Asahi Simbun (The Asahi Shimbun newspaper)comparing an encounter with a brown bear to "fighting an American military commando".
In May, two police officers in the northern prefecture of Akita were seriously injured while trying to retrieve a body from a forest after a bear attack.
"Bears attack for food, or recognize them as food.
"One bear can cause a series of incidents," said local government official Mami Kondo.
As the number of bears grew, more and more of them moved from the mountains to the plains closer to humans.
Over time, they get used to the sounds and become less afraid of them.
At the same time, the human population is decreasing.
Young people move from smaller to big cities, leaving neighborhoods empty.
The encounter between bears and humans can have a fatal outcome.
"Bears that enter urban areas often become agitated and panic, resulting in attacks and injuries to people," said Junpei Tanaka of the Pichiyo Wildlife Research Center in Japan. (Picchio Wildlife Research Center in Japan).
Bear emergence and attacks usually occur in April when they wake up from hibernation in search of food, then again in September and October when they eat to prepare for the winter months.
But their movements can no longer be predicted, due to the yield of acorns, the main food for bears, whose fruits are declining due to climate change.
"A change in the law is inevitable, but it is only a stopgap measure in an emergency," Tanaka said.
Catching and killing animals will not bring much progress, he adds.
The government should protect the bear's habitat so that they are not forced to go too far.
"We need to change the state policy related to the forest environment and the creation of forests with high biodiversity.
He added that the government should clarify who should take responsibility for bears that stray into residential areas - local officials or hunters.
"Ideally, there should be fully trained shooters like the government's emergency response hunters, but there are currently no such jobs in Japan," Tanaka said.
Residential areas are vastly different terrain for hunters, who are used to killing bears in unpopulated regions, Saito said.
"If we don't shoot, people will criticize us and say 'Why didn't you shoot when you had a shotgun?' And if we shoot, I'm sure people will be angry and say we could have hit someone.
"I think it is unreasonable to ask hunters to make such a decision, he concluded.
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