Publicly available ministry data, dating back to the fiscal year ending March 2018, shows that this year is the first to see more than two deaths in the period from April to June.
A record 13 people were killed by bears in Japan last year, and there has been a jump in encounters as the animals emerge hungry from hibernation.
In the year to March, bear sightings nationwide topped 50,000 – more than double the previous record set two years earlier, according to official data.
Earlier this month, dozens of police officers, hunters and city officials were deployed in the city of Utsunomiya, north of Tokyo, to catch a bear that roamed the streets for four days, forcing mass school closures.
In the Fukushima region this month, a bear attacked four people at two factories and in a residential area, before escaping hunters.
