The ramen restaurant I visited in Sapporo was called Higuma (brown bear). Cartoon illustrations of smiling happy bears adorn billboards and shopping malls; keychain bear charms dangle from cell ...

The country has two types of bears: moon bears and the larger brown bear, which can weigh half a tonne (1,100 pounds), outrun a human and, in Japan, only lives in the main northern island of Hokkaido.