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\nA deer walks in a park in Osaka’s Miyakojima Ward, March 22, 2026, in this photo taken by Eriko Tokuda. It is believed to be “Shikayan.” <\/p>\n
\n This spring, a deer appeared in the central part of the city of Osaka, and it made no attempt to run away when people approached. Based on sightings and other information, it seems highly likely that the animal wandered over from Nara Park, where the deer are registered natural monuments and quite used to people gathering around them. However, there is no concrete proof, and with its “residence unknown,” officials scrambled to find somewhere that would take it. Under administrative management plans, wild deer can in some cases be culled.
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\n In the town of Nose, in northern Osaka Prefecture, this same deer has been nicknamed Shikayan and now lives in one corner of a campground run by the lodging facility Nose Onsen.
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\n Shikayan was captured by Osaka Municipal Government employees on March 25 on the grounds of an Osaka Prefectural Police facility in the city’s Joto Ward. It is about 1 meter long and believed to be a male between 1 and 2 years old.
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\n Since early March, just before this deer wandered into Osaka, reports of deer sightings had been coming in one after another from Higashiosaka in Osaka’s east, from the foot of Mount Ikoma on the Osaka-Nara prefectural border and from the Nara Prefecture city of Ikoma farther east. The city of Osaka and Nara Park are about 26 kilometers apart. Did the animal keep moving west from the park until it reached Osaka?
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\n With that possibility in mind, Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura and other officials asked Nara Gov. Makoto Yamashita to take the deer into protective care in Nara. But they got an unexpected answer.
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\n “Nara Prefecture cannot permit a deer from Osaka to be released here,” and “A deer that leaves Nara Park becomes a wild animal and is no longer a natural monument.”
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\n What exactly does that mean?
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\n In the legend of Kasugataisha Shrine, which stands near Nara Park, deer are regarded as “messengers of the gods.” In 1957, the national government designated them a natural monument as Nara’s deer. Culling them is prohibited in principle and even capturing them requires permission from the Agency for Cultural Affairs.
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\n At the same time, more people have been feeding them snacks and nutrient-rich vegetables, and the deer population has grown. According to a survey by a protection group working to safeguard them, 1,465 deer were confirmed in Nara Park in 2025 — 140 more than the previous year and the highest number since the counts began in 1953. As the deer population has grown, even the lawn grass in the park that had traditionally been their staple food has become insufficient. Competition for survival among deer around the park has intensified, and it is possible that one deer left the park in search of a new place to live and new food sources — and that deer may have been Shikayan.
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\n Yet how to deal with a deer that appears in the city center has not been spelled out in detail.
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\n According to the Ministry of the Environment, under the Wildlife Protection, Control, and Hunting Management Act, which sets out rules for wildlife protection and the prevention of agricultural damage, a deer judged to threaten residents’ safety is considered harmful. If a prefectural governor grants permission, municipalities and others can capture and cull it.
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\n On the other hand, if the deer is considered safe for people, how it is handled is left to the local government. An Osaka city official spoke on how difficult that is, saying, “Each time, we have to look at the characteristics of the individual animal to make a decision.”
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\n This time, the matter was settled without culling the deer. But what should be done when a second or third deer appears in central urban areas?
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\n Takeo Kuriyama, an associate professor of animal management at the University of Hyogo, stresses the need for a manual, for capture efforts in places that could be called the “back mountain” of the city and for prevention measures such as fencing, saying, “If deer are already pressing up to areas that could be described as the urban center’s ‘back mountain,’ the same thing could happen again.”
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\n For example, officials could work out in advance a way to coordinate with municipalities that have forested areas to guide deer back into the mountains, or set rules for how to monitor them until they return to their original habitats. “Rather than responding emotionally, it’s ideal to prepare a range of options beforehand,” Kuriyama said.
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\n (Japanese original by Mie Omokawa, Keiko Shioji and Yumi Shibamura, Osaka City News Department; and Kazugi Yamaguchi, Nara Bureau)
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