Wildlife in Japan

Jigokudani Monkey Park sits in a steep valley above the Shibu and Yudanaka onsen towns, about an hour by train and bus from Nagano. The Japanese macaques live wild in the forest and come down to the valley floor, and in winter some of them soak in a man-made hot pool built for them. The park is reached on a 1.6 km forest path, icy in winter, so wear shoes with grip. Admission is 800 yen (about $5.50) for adults. Monkeys are there all year, but the bathing photos happen when it is cold, from December to March; go early on weekdays to avoid tour-bus crowds. Dated online tickets are being introduced for busy days, so check the park’s site.

Do not touch, feed or stare at the monkeys, and keep bags closed. You can also see wild macaques in Kamikochi and on Yakushima, where they share the forest with small Yakushika deer.

Eastern Hokkaido is Japan’s premier winter wildlife trip, best done by rental car or a guided tour from Kushiro airport. Red-crowned cranes, once down to a few dozen birds, now number in the thousands thanks to winter feeding. From December to March they gather at feeding grounds in Tsurui village and at the Akan International Crane Center, where you watch them dance and call against the snow. At dawn they roost in the Otowa Bridge river shallows, wrapped in mist.

From late January to early March, drift ice reaches the coast of Shiretoko. Boats from Rausu take you out among the floes, where Steller’s sea eagles, among the largest eagles in the world, and white-tailed eagles perch on the ice a few metres away. Combine the trip with Lake Mashu and the whooper swans of Lake Kussharo, where hot springs keep the shore unfrozen.

Shiretoko National Park has one of the densest brown bear populations in the world. The reliable way to see them is a boat cruise from Utoro or Rausu along the roadless tip of the peninsula, from about late April to October, when bears forage on the beaches and fish for salmon in late summer. On land, the Shiretoko Five Lakes boardwalk is safe at any time, while the ground-level trails need a guided walk during the bear season. Rausu also runs whale and dolphin cruises in summer, with orcas and sperm whales possible.

Never approach a bear for a photo, and never leave food in the open; feeding wildlife has led to bears being shot.

Around Izumi, in the north of Kagoshima prefecture, more than 10,000 cranes, mostly hooded and white-naped, winter on the rice fields from November to February, one of the largest crane gatherings in the world. An observation centre overlooks the fields, open from November into March for a small fee. Go at dawn, when the flocks lift off.

Elsewhere on Honshu, the deer of Nara Park bow for shika senbei crackers, and deer wander the shrine island of Miyajima, where feeding them is banned. In June, fireflies fill rural rivers across the country. For birding near Tokyo, the Tokyo Wild Bird Park and Kasai Rinkai Park have tidal flats busy with shorebirds in spring and autumn migration. The beech forests of Shirakami Sanchi in the north hold black woodpeckers and serow.

The subtropical islands are Japan’s Galapagos. On Iriomote, almost all jungle and mangrove, about a hundred Iriomote cats survive; you will almost certainly not see one, but kayak trips up the mangrove rivers turn up kingfishers, crested serpent eagles and fiddler crabs. Amami Oshima has night tours in search of the black Amami rabbit, a living fossil, along with Lidth’s jay and the Amami woodcock.

At sea, humpback whales breed off the Kerama Islands from about January to March, with whale-watching boats from Zamami and from Naha on Okinawa. The Ogasawara Islands, 24 hours by ferry from Tokyo, have humpbacks from February to April, resident dolphins and endemic land snails and birds. On Mikura-jima in the Izu Islands, licensed boats take swimmers out to wild bottlenose dolphins from spring to autumn. Loggerhead turtles nest on Yakushima’s Nagata beach in early summer, watched only on guided night tours.

• Animal cafes: owl, hedgehog and otter cafes keep wild species in poor conditions. Skip them.
• Dolphins: Taiji’s dolphin hunts supply aquariums and swim-with programmes; choose wild-dolphin trips at Mikura-jima or Ogasawara instead.
• Feeding: never feed monkeys, foxes or bears. Nara’s deer crackers are the only sanctioned feeding.
• Bears: Asian black bears in Honshu and brown bears in Hokkaido are a real hazard, and attacks hit a record in 2025. Carry a bell, avoid dawn and dusk on trails, and follow closures.
• Tours: for Hokkaido in winter, a guided tour solves icy driving and early starts. See the East Asia wildlife guide for wider options.