A CCTV camera footage, released by Gunma Prefectural Police via Jiji Press, shows a bear walking inside a supermarket in Numata, Gunma prefecture on Oct. 7, 2025. AFP/Handout
Bears have killed at least nine people in Japan so far in 2025, an unwanted record that the government has described as a "serious problem".
The film – titled Brown Bear! and featuring depictions of an animal "attacking and eating" humans – was initially scheduled for release in November.
Producers announced on Oct 24 that the release would be delayed, adding that they "take seriously the fact that there have been a series of real-life attacks" in the country.
Bears have been increasingly encroaching into towns due to factors including a declining human population and climate change.
This week, Japan's new environment minister vowed to toughen bear controls, including by "training government hunters".
The film tells the story of a desperate university student applying for a shady part-time job that takes him deep into the woods, where he encounters a ravenous, man-eating bear.
The producers said their gruesome portrayals of bear attacks were not gratuitous violence but a form of artistic expression "inherent to a monster thriller".
Nonetheless, "we will be considerate towards our real-life situation, and make sure to create a screening environment where viewers can feel safe and fully immersed", they said in a statement.
