TOKYO -- TOKYO (AP) — Japan deployed troops Wednesday to help contain a surge of bear attacks that have terrorized residents in a mountainous region in the northern prefecture of Akita. Reports of sometimes deadly encounters with brown bears and Asiatic black bears are being reported almost daily ahead of hibernation season as the bears forage for food. They have been seen near schools, train stations, supermarkets and at a hot springs resort. Since April, more than 100 people have been injured and at least 12 killed in bear attacks across Japan, according to Environment Ministry statistics at the end of October. The growing bear population’s encroachment into residential areas is happening in a region with a rapidly aging and declining human population, with few people trained to hunt the

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