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A Japanese prefecture is taking an innovative approach to keeping bears away: drones.ARMEND NIMANI/AFP via Getty ImagesA Japanese city is taking an innovative approach to keeping bears away: drones.Ishinomaki City has ordered bear-spray-carrying drones from Terra Drones to deter bears.The drones can be operated remotely, allowing people to retreat safely.A city in Japan has come up with a high-tech solution to its intense bear problem.Ishinomaki City in Japan's eastern Miyagi Prefecture has ordered drones that will spray bear repellent at attacking bears.Drone manufacturer Terra Drone said in a press release on Monday that it will supply the city with what it calls "bear repellent spray-equipped drones," which it said could remotely and safely repel bears without human intervention.A video of the drone's demonstration showed a drone spraying repellent on a human dressed in a bear suit, crouching on all fours to mimic a bear's stance.Terra Drone told Business Insider in an email that it would introduce one drone first and begin full-scale operations from next spring. The company expects the total project cost to be "a few million yen."The drones will be operated by a private company picked by the city's government to prevent bear damage, Terra Drone said.Terra Drone is supplying bear-repellent-carrying drones in Japan.Terra DroneBear sightings and attacks have become a big problem for Japan. The word "bear" was one of Japan's words of the year in 2025.The release, citing figures from Japan's environment ministry, said bear sightings increased 163% between 2021 and 2025, and there had been 100 bear attack-linked injuries and 12 deaths in Japan since April.Japan deployed troops from the Self-Defense Forces — the country's key military branch — in December to its northern regions, where several bear sightings had been reported. The troops set box traps to capture the bears.The drones can be controlled from about half a mile away, and can spray the bears with "pinpoint accuracy," the release said. Bear sprays contain capsaicin, a chemical found in chili peppers, which irritates the bear's eyes and nose, giving the human time to escape.It added, "This provides a highly effective method of scaring away bears, whose sense of smell is thousands of times stronger than that of humans, and allows them time to temporarily evacuate."The bear-spray drones are not the only drone-based solution Japan has deployed thus far.In November, Gifu Prefecture deployed barking drones that mimic the sounds of hunting dogs, along with firecrackers, to scare off incoming bears. The drones featured large googly eyes and loudspeakers.Read the original article on Business Insider

A small group of tech workers have signed a petition calling on their CEOs to speak out against Immigration and Customs Enforcement and cancel contracts with the agency.San Francisco Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty ImagesThe Trump Administration has been deploying federal agents into metropolitan cities.A group of 200+ tech workers has signed a petition demanding that CEOs speak out against ICE.One of the demands includes canceling company contracts with the federal agency.A small group of tech workers is calling on their CEOs to speak out against Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as the Trump administration deploys federal agents into metropolitan areas.The petition, titled "Tech demands ICE out of our cities," calls on tech leaders to "pick up the phone" and call the White House to demand Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents "leave our cities."Other demands include canceling company contracts with ICE and speaking out publicly against "ICE's violence."The petition has received more than 250 signatories, which represents a small sliver of the overall tech workforce in the US.Employees from Google and Amazon make up a plurality of the signatories, although not every participant chose to disclose their name; at the time of publication, roughly 170 of the signatories were named, the others chose only to share their title and or company.Organizers of the petition were not disclosed. Business Insider reached out to the contact provided on the website and did not immediately get a response.A spokesperson for Amazon declined to comment. A Google spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The Trump administration has been aggressively executing on immigration enforcement; some of the tactics have led to highly publicized clashes between local community members and ICE agents.Minneapolis — the city where George Floyd was killed by a police officer — recently became a focal point of an immigration crackdown, and where an ICE officer fatally shot Renee Good, a US citizen.The Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation, an AFL-CIO affiliate, endorsed a move on Saturday encouraging local residents to skip work on January 23.The White House has also targeted the tech industry by attaching a higher fee to the H-1B visa — a program tech companies and other industries have relied on to hire overseas talent.The move has seen ripple effects from Big Tech, down to higher education.Data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center showed a 5.9% decline in enrollment at US universities by graduate international students for the Fall 2025 semester.Read the original article on Business Insider

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