The number of crows continues to increase in many parts of Japan, especially in Tokyo and other large cities, and the problems they cause have also kept on growing over the last few years. The sound of their beating wings and their cawing is unpleasant, and sometimes they cause major trouble, attacking pets like cats, and hurting people by pecking at their heads.

According to a study by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, there were about 7,000 crows in Tokyo in 1985. Since then their numbers have multiplied, and in 2001 there were about 36,500 of them.

The increase is closely related to garbage. In Tokyo, garbage used to go in black plastic bags for curbside pickup, but in 1994 the metropolitan government promoted a switchover to calcium carbonate bags instead, as part of a new garbage disposal policy — the new bags are more environmentally friendly when burned. It was right around then that the crow population began increasing rapidly. The new bags are semi-transparent, making it easy for the crows to peek inside and raid the kitchen scraps. And so, the theory goes, that is why there are now so many.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government established a crow management project team in 2001 and launched a comprehensive campaign against the birds. The metropolis now has a two-pronged approach: (1) tackling the garbage problem by asking people to spread anti-bird nets over curbside garbage and conducting garbage collection at night; and (2) capturing crows.

Iwasaki Hiromi works at Tokyo's Bureau of the Environment. She says, "If we make it impossible for the crows to eat garbage, there's a good chance we'll see fewer of them. But that might not solve the problem entirely — they could migrate somewhere else, or eat small animals because there's not enough other food for them. Unfortunately, the only way to reduce them to a more balanced number is to capture some."

The new plan is having some success. A survey conducted at the end of 2002 found there were about 1,100 fewer crows than the year before, which makes 35,400 of them now. But that is still a far cry from what the metropolis says is the ideal number, about 7,000. So the anti-crow policies have to stay in place.

Iwasaki explains, "The increase in crows is changing the local ecosystem. For example, other wild birds like bush warblers and swallows are disappearing from Tokyo. Of course, it's not the crows that are to blame, but people who keep putting out more and more garbage. Our own mistakes are coming back to haunt us."

People are complaining about the damage caused by the crows, but it could be that the real victims are the birds themselves.