Kumamap - Bear Safety Japan
Incident Map & AI Predictions
Only for iPhone
Free
Used by 3.8M+ travelers in 187 countries. Track 145,000+ bear incidents across Japan, updated daily. AI risk predictions for safer hikes.
Track bear incidents across Japan with the most comprehensive sighting database available. Over 145,000 incidents mapped. Trusted by 3.8 million+ users in 187 countries.
Plan safer hikes with real-time sighting data, AI-powered risk predictions, and detailed area safety guides covering 629 trails and all 47 prefectures.
FEATURES
- Interactive map with 145,000+ bear sighting locations
- AI risk predictions by area and season
- Push notifications for any prefecture, city, trail, or tourist spot you follow
- Detailed safety guides for 629 hiking trails
- Area-by-area incident data for all 47 prefectures
- GPS-based nearby incident alerts
- Trip planning with safety overlays
- LINE and WhatsApp chat for instant area lookups
- Latest bear news from official sources
- Available in 6 languages
BUILT FOR
- Hikers and trail runners in Japan
- Tourists planning outdoor trips
- Residents in bear-prone areas
- Wildlife researchers and enthusiasts
Data sourced from Japanese government agencies, prefectural wildlife departments, police reports, and verified news sources. Updated daily.
more - Alerts and saved places now stay with your account. Sign in once to follow areas and save spots, and they sync across all your devices, with email alerts as a backup.
- A live current-location indicator now shows where you are on the map.
- The map opens faster and uses far less data, especially on cellular.
- Sighting cards in the map feed size cleanly to their content (no more clipping or empty gaps), and map markers are tidier.
2.7 Jun 9
- Browse Nearby places of interest by category (hot springs, hiking, lookouts, shrines, and more) on Areas. Each sighting now also shows nearby places of interest.
- "Customize this trip" on every saved trip report opens the planner pre-filled with the route, stops, and mode so you can save your own version.
- 3D Relive polish: themed loading screen with progress bar, map labels now in your language, visible Start/Goal stop labels, and a clean first-frame video thumbnail.
- Switching between sightings or between trip reports no longer leaves a blank gray map. 3D hillshade terrain is back.
2.6 May 26
- New colorful profile avatars on Account, comments, and community thread chips. Tap Shuffle on Account to roll a fresh one any time.
- Area pages now show the sponsor card on mobile — same sponsor info already visible on the web.
- Portrait photos no longer appear sideways after upload; thumbnails, previews, and social cards are now baked to the correct orientation.
- Alerts area-search dropdown stays visible above the soft keyboard so you can finish picking an area to follow.
2.5 May 25
- Dark mode: pick Light, Dark, or System from the More tab. The full app, map included, re-themes to match.
- Trip planner reports honest risk on long routes (250 km+); older builds silently showed "Low risk" when sighting data failed to load.
- Redesigned area pages: two-column hero with a new icon action bar (LINE, WhatsApp, web, share menu).
- Map area search now shows correct incident counts; place search results include distance from the current view.
2.4 May 24
- New 3D Relive on every trip report: tap "Play 3D Relive" to fly along your route on 3D terrain with a cinematic camera
- Save the flythrough as a 9:16 MP4 video, or share a link that autoplays the same 3D flight on the recipient's phone
- Bear sightings within 5 km of each stop pop up as you pass, with a live elevation HUD and stop cards along the route
- Smoother "Opening report" transition when opening a saved trip from Plan
2.3 May 17
- Public profiles: pick a @handle, get an avatar, and your reports, sightings, trips, and comments now show your name and link to your profile page (private by default — flip to public from Account)
- Save bookmark (heart): tap the heart on any sighting, trip, community thread, blog post, or guide to save it; saved items follow you across devices once signed in
- Alerts redesign: Alerts becomes a real dashboard inside Account, with a hero summary line, a map of all your followed areas, source and time filter chips, and time-band groups (today / yesterday / this week / earlier)
- Account page redesign: hero with avatar, display name, and member-since; quick actions for Report / Plan / Alerts / Predictions; followed places as cards; and a "For you" feed of incidents from areas you follow
2.1 May 11
- New Account tab with email-only sign-in: claim your past anonymous reports, sightings, and trip plans, and see what is still pending review with an "under review" badge
- Tab bar restructured: Account becomes its own tab, Predictions folds into the Map filters, Reports folds under Plan, and Community moves into More
- The Report flow now runs natively inside the app (no more in-app browser), with smoother location pickup and faster delivery to staff
- Trip planner rejects stops less than 100 m apart before routing and rolls back the transport mode if no route can be built; trip listings sort by views and stop names link to their area pages
2.0 May 8
- Search now matches macron-stripped queries: typing "kamikochi" or "koyasan" finds Kamikōchi and Kōya-san across map, areas, predictions, and the trip planner
- Plan tab: pins can no longer be dropped on open water — coastal stops snap to land within 1 km, and capes (e.g. Shiriya-zaki) now resolve to their municipality instead of returning null
- Area pages add a Report button on the action strip, and /report?place= flies to the area without dropping a pin until you confirm; first pin drop shows a drag-hint chip
- Switching language now refreshes the open tab so place names re-render in the new language; toast notifications unified across map, plan, and share into one consistent style
1.9 May 7
- Trip-report risk verdict rewritten: plain-language reason citing the latest sighting, distance to the nearest one, and 30/7-day counts; risk now uses count bands (Moderate / High / Very High) instead of opaque scores
- Elevation profiles fixed for inland Japan trails: switched to GSI DEM10B, so mountain routes no longer crush to a flat or negative Y-axis
- Bear-species cards on trip reports now driven by route prefectures: shows brown, black, or both correctly, and hides entirely on bear-free routes (Kyushu, Shikoku)
- Walking and cycling routes no longer cross the sea (ferry segments excluded), and Mapbox leg summaries now load in your selected language
1.8 May 6
- Plan tab rebuilt: stops now appear as labeled pins (S, G, 1, 2…) you can drag to reorder, the risk verdict matches the per-stop labels, and routing uses Mapbox for more reliable trail coverage
- Every map now has a fullscreen toggle (maximize button in the bottom-left controls)
- Community tab merges threads with community sightings in one feed, prioritizing real photos over street-view stand-ins (mobile previously showed threads only)
- Cleaner maps: removed the redundant heatmap that bled into the ocean, unified red sighting markers and slate location pins across every map
1.7 May 6
- Tourism spots and hiking trails now appear as labels on every map (3,000+ places across all 47 prefectures) — tap one to open its area page
- Place cards for tourism and hiking entries now show the prefecture in the subtitle, easier to tell apart at a glance
- Fixed comments on hiking-trail and tourism pages so they stay in sync with the web (previously stored under a different key and appeared empty)
- Removed the rarely used up/down vote buttons on comments — replies and likes are unchanged
1.6 May 1
- Map: per-area filter is now accurate (slug-based, no more 30km radius approximation), and your search query stays put when toggling between map and feed
- Plan: switched hiking-route calculation to a more reliable service, with clearer error messages when a route can't be drawn
- WhatsApp: new chat option for asking about an area or reporting a sighting (More tab, place pages, after submitting a report)
- Notifications and resume: opening a push notification or returning to the app after a long break now refreshes data automatically
1.5 Apr 29
- Fixed display of 8 city names that were showing incorrectly (Koriyama, Yamatokoriyama, Gujo, Gamagori, Ogori, Esashi, Hiyama Esashi, Chihayaakasaka)
- Area maps now center correctly for ~1,900 cities (previously fell back to a default location)
- Faster page rendering (font and image optimization)
- Trip report map: new satellite layer toggle
1.4 Apr 27
- New push notifications: follow any prefecture, city, or trail and get notified when bears are spotted
- New Alerts page to manage your followed areas and view latest incidents
- Map sighting sheet now closes with swipe-back gesture instead of navigating away
- Bug fixes and performance improvements
1.3 Apr 9
- Redesigned safety gear section with 10 curated products and Rakuten purchase option
- Improved sighting images with Street View location photos
- Bug fixes and performance improvements
1.2.1 Apr 4
- Faster app: shared data layer loads sightings and stats once, eliminating redundant network requests across tabs
- Fixed data disappearing when switching tabs quickly
- Area detail maps now zoom correctly to all 20 designated cities (Sendai, Sapporo, Yokohama, etc.)
- Static assets (boundary maps) now bundled in app for instant area map rendering
- Search persists after selecting a result, with clear button
- Feed view hides map-only controls (GPS, layers) for cleaner UI
- Scroll position resets when navigating between pages
- Improved error handling across all pages
1.2 Apr 2
- New Community tab: browse and post community threads, view trip reports
- Redesigned map controls with 3D toggle and settings menu
- Redesigned trip planner with inline controls and GPS locate
- Updated areas page with glass-style search bar
- Photos now optional when reporting sightings (description still required without photos)
- Performance and UI improvements across all screens
1.1 Mar 31
- Alerts and saved places now stay with your account. Sign in once to follow areas and save spots, and they sync across all your devices, with email alerts as a backup.
- A live current-location indicator now shows where you are on the map.
- The map opens faster and uses far less data, especially on cellular.
- Sighting cards in the map feed size cleanly to their content (no more clipping or empty gaps), and map markers are tidier.
more Version 2.7 Jun 9
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