KippuJapan

Nara

Are the Nara deer dangerous?

Every English guide either calls them tame or calls them vicious. Nara Prefecture and the foundation that looks after them publish real numbers every year — in Japanese only. Here they are.

Checked 3 September 2026. Census and mortality from the Foundation for the Protection of Deer in Nara; injuries from Nara Prefecture. Sources at the bottom.
A sika deer standing on grass in Nara Park, photographed close up in profile.
The deer are wild animals that have grown used to people, not tame ones. Photograph by Arczi, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0. Not our photograph.

The short answer

Yes, they injure people — and almost never badly. In the most recent year published in detail there were 71 recorded injuries, of which 0 required admission to hospital. Seven in ten needed antiseptic and a plaster. And 72.5% happened while the visitor was handling deer crackers — which means the risk is very largely under your control.

How bad were the injuries?

Fiscal year 2022 (April 2022 to March 2023). The most recent year for which the prefecture has published this level of detail. Traffic collisions are counted separately and are not included here.

SeverityPeopleShare
Admitted to hospital (all fractures) 0 0.0%
Fracture, not admitted 2 2.8%
Wound closed with stitches or staples 13 18.3%
Severe bruising 1 1.4%
Deeper cut, heavier bleeding, no stitches 4 5.6%
Antiseptic and a plaster, or light bruising 50 70.4%
Not recorded 1 1.4%
Total71100%

What were they doing at the time?

CircumstanceIncidentsShare
Buying deer crackers, feeding them, or just after feeding 50 72.5%
Simply walking past or approaching a deer 8 11.6%
Holding out a hand, letting a deer lick fingers, reaching to touch 1 1.4%
Caught up in a fight between deer, or a startled deer bolting 3 4.3%
A dog the visitor had with them barked 0 0.0%
Other 2 2.9%
Cause unknown 5 7.2%
Total69100%
A stack of shika senbei, the flat rice crackers sold in Nara Park to feed the deer.
Shika senbei. Nearly three quarters of recorded injuries happen with these in someone's hand. Photograph by Travis from Sydney, NSW, Australia, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0. Not our photograph.

The single most useful thing in this table is the gap between the first row and the second. Feeding the deer is where essentially all of the risk sits. Walking through the park without crackers in your hand is close to uneventful.

Rabies

Japan has recorded no domestically acquired human rabies case since 1958 and is one of a small number of rabies-free countries, alongside Australia and New Zealand. Nara Prefecture states that there has been no case of rabies, or any other infection, resulting from being bitten or struck by a deer in Nara.

When are they worst?

September first, then May and March. September is the rutting season, when stags are at their most aggressive.

How many deer are there?

0 900 1800 2008201120142017202020232026
Counted each July by direct observation. 2026: 1,687, up 222 on the year before and the highest on record.
YearStagsHindsFawnsTotal
2026411990 2861,687
2025315816 3341,465
2024313798 2141,325
2023286770 1771,233
2022204747 2311,182
2021217806 821,105
2020224808 2541,286
2019357756 2751,388
2018355767 2381,360
2017261731 2341,226
2016236715 2291,180
2015204788 1991,191
2014190713 1731,076
2013210736 1481,094
2012198700 1811,079
2011188730 1771,095
2010197713 1861,096
2009196705 1511,052
2008262695 1711,128

What kills them

Worth knowing if you drive: 36 deer were killed by vehicles in 2025, out of 140 deaths recorded that year. The park is not fenced off from the roads.

YearTrafficDiseaseStray dogsOtherTotal
20253630 074140
20242935 066130
20233559 050144
20222749 054130
20215980 0129269
202049102 13144308
20193487 058179
20182981 078188
20175781 076214
20165673 160190

What we could not confirm

The prefecture publishes the year-by-year injury total only as a graph, not as figures we could read off. We have one exact recent total: 100 incidents in fiscal 2023 as of 29 February 2024 (45 Japanese visitors, 53 foreign, 2 unrecorded) — and that year was still running when it was counted.

Japanese press has reported 227 incidents in fiscal 2018 as the record year. We have not seen that figure in a prefecture document ourselves, so we have marked it unverified in our data rather than repeat it as fact.

Sources

Population and mortality are counted by the Foundation for the Protection of Deer in Nara. Injury figures are compiled by the Nara Park Deer Consultation Room and published by Nara Prefecture. Everything here is translated from the Japanese originals; none of it is published in English by the bodies that collect it.

All of it as JSON and CSV.