Morning walk interrupted by notorious Troop T1.
The town of Yugawara, in Kanagawa Prefecture, seems like it should be a very tranquil place. A seaside hot spring town, with baths and inns dotting the cityscape as it stretches up into the mountains as you head inland, it’s the sort of setting that entices you to get up early and go for a nice stroll, and that’s how last Thursday started off for one local resident in his 40s.
Unfortunately, at about 6:50 in the morning, as he was walking past the entrance to one of the town’s inns, the man was suddenly surrounded by a group of roughly a dozen antagonists. When you find yourself outnumbered to that degree, ordinarily the smart thing to do is to try to talk your way out of the situation. That wasn’t an option, though, because the man wasn’t surrounded by yakuza thugs or delinquent youths, but by angry monkeys.
The animals advanced on the man, biting him several times on his hands before he could either get away or scare them off, and after reporting the incident he was taken to the hospital for treatment for his injuries.
▼ Monkeys on the streets of Yugawara
The trouble that had found the man this day came in the form of violent members of the group known as Troop T1, and if you’re thinking that a group of monkeys needs to acquire a certain degree of infamy, or at least notoriety, before a town gives them a name, you’re right. Monkeys in Yugawara have been growing increasingly bold. As you can see in the above video, they’re not limiting themselves to forested areas, with many of the animals now feeling comfortable roaming around more developed parts of the town. In 2025, there were over 900 reported incidents of monkeys behaving in an aggressive or intimidating manner towards human residents of Yugawara, including a farmer who said he was accosted by a group of monkeys in his field while harvesting melons and citrus fruits.
▼ Video from last winter, demonstrating how little apprehension some of the monkeys feel around people. In addition to raiding gardens, the animals have broken into homes by tearing through screen doors or prying open sliding glass ones.
As a hot spring town, tourism is a vital part of Yugawara’s economy, and as a rural town, many of its residents are elderly. Troop T1 preying on unsuspecting tourists or defenseless senior citizens. Since at least last year, the city administration has been seeking authorization from the Kanagawa prefectural government to capture all of Troop T1, but permission to do so has yet to be finalized.
It’s not clear what’s causing the increased aggression from the animals. Decades ago, it wasn’t uncommon for tourists to bring food into the Yugawara foothills to feed the monkeys with, which could erode the animals’ fear of humans and see them, and their living spaces, as sources of sustenance, but this has become far less prevalent than it used to be. All the same, the local authorities have reminded everyone to neither feed nor provoke the monkeys, and to contact the police should they spot groups of the animals in town.
On the bright side, at least Yugawara hasn’t had any bear troubles.
Source: Nitele News via Dmenu News via Itai News, Kanaloco, Nitele News (2)
Top image: Pakutaso
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