Wildlife and or locations to be wary of

I plan on backpacking across Japan, is there any locations that I should be wary to camp in, like "bad sides of town" or any specific area that has a high population of wildlife that could kill me with ease?

HARD to say not knowing where you live. for example in North America we have bears, cougars, mountain lions, wolves etc. In Western Europe they have wild boars and foxes. the odd wolf and that's it. In Japan bears and boars mostly. If you worry that much you definitely are cut out for camping in the wilderness. Of course it is likely illegal in Japan as in many countries, to camp in the woods or ..without asking the owners first. There are camping grounds but one must reserve well in advance, especially in the summer. Also camping grounds aren't likely to be close to a railway station. You will be travelling by train right? because hitchhiking isn't that popular in Japan and of course you have to be fluent enough in Japanese to talk to the drivers. Have you googled hitchhiking in Japan?

Have you spend much time backpacking/camping in other countries? Outside of polar bear & grizzly bear areas and maybe the plains of Africa, I don't know of too many places where one has to worry about "large populations of wildlife that will kill you with ease". Especially Japan. In the north there are bears but the population is low. Plus if you are staying in a campgroung, I seriously doubt this is something to worry about.

If you decide to hike and camp anywhere in Okinawa Prefecture, you need to be wary of the Habu, which is a particularly nasty poisonous snake. There are also lots of creatures in the oceans that can cause death rather quickly and painfully.

I understand that the bears up north can also be dangerous as a local was killed last year.

Avoid grassy areas in the mountains of Kyushu if you're camping out. There's a venomous snake called the 'mamushi,' a type of pit viper that is venomous. I can never find much on it except the symptoms and it sounds like the poison is at least not neurotoxic. There are a couple of deaths each year that I hear about. I believe its range is also Korea.

Have you spend much time backpacking/camping in other countries? Outside of polar bear & grizzly bear areas and maybe the plains of Africa, I don't know of too many places where one has to worry about ''large populations of wildlife that will kill you with ease''. Especially Japan. In the north there are bears but the population is low. Plus if you are staying in a campgroung, I seriously doubt this is something to worry about.

Actually, the OPs question is a good one to ask. All backpacking and camping has some risk and danger involved from wild animals. And it's not necessarily the large animals that you need to be wary of as other posts have described. You will be more likely to run into snakes and insects than bears and lions.

Anyway, many Japanese hikers will carry a bear bell while hiking. The idea is to avoid accidentally surprising an animal (not necessarily a bear) and scaring it. Another animal that you should be careful around are monkeys. They are found in many areas around Japan. People don't realize that they are wild animals and really have the potential to hurt you despite their being extraordinarily cute and interesting. Just keep your distance, don't feed them, and you will be fine.

The deadly-poisonous snake, 'mamushi' are found not only in Kyushu but all over Japan except Okinawa.

When hiking/camping, you should also be wary of the hornet as another deadly-poisonous creature, especially in spring when they are ready to get mad easily.

And mukade- enormous centipedes with an extremely painful bite. They also live in urban areas and can easily be 20 cm long and a cm wide- I kid you not. Google "mukade" and you will find lots of Flickr photos of them. They like to crawl inside things so keep your shoes inside your tent overnight if you are camping.

I have to say that Mukade scare me the most. I have encountered a few of them so far. Very fast once they get moving, the movement is also scary. I crushed one with my boot once, hard to kill these guys!

Both the Mamushi and the Okinawan Habu are quite dangerous. They're cousins to one another.

You also have the Sakishima Habu, the Kume Shima Habu, and the Tokara Habu. All are more than a handful when angered.

Just be careful and use common sense. Act as if you are in a comparable area in the States. You wouldn't go sticking your hand in rocks with out looking first in the States, so don't do it in Japan either.

READING this post a couple of months later, I have 2 comments: #1 the OP, like a few, had no reactions about our suggestions.Did we scare him/ her? #2 I don't know about Japan but in Europe and the USA the most dangerous animal is MAN. There have been some horrible cases of young people of both sexes being robbed and hurt or even killed. I only hitchiked a few times with a buddy and a couple of times we had bad feelings about a driver and couldn't wait to get out.