Ask, and the town hands them over
If macaques are in the garden, the town will hand you the fireworks. Yugawara gives out chase-off fireworks, firecrackers and rocket fireworks, to residents who ask. Call the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Division on 0465-63-2111, extensions 733 and 734.
Farmers who have taken a training course can also receive animal-repellent fireworks used for this work. The town has lately been giving out chase-off sticks about a metre long as well. Both are on the town's macaque page, updated on 2 February 2026.
The monkeys already know the noise
Kanagawa's handout says the same offer in one line: residents who ask receive firecrackers and rocket fireworks. It also says the monkeys are very used to people, and that chasing them off has not been effective. The twenty years behind that line are in Twenty Years of Chasing Monkeys in Yugawara.
On a weekday the daytime patrol is the town team, and nights and holidays are town staff. That split is in the same handout. FNN, on 5 October 2026, reported how a patrol uses it: when the troop comes near town, the team on its rounds follows the GPS locations and answers with fireworks and firecrackers. Two lead monkeys wear the collars. The longer story of that team is in the twenty-year piece.
In July, August, and September the plan adds patrols near each elementary school while children are on their way in. The line is in the prefecture's supplements for fiscal 2025 and fiscal 2026.
How to tell the town
When a crop or a house is damaged, tell the town. The macaque page takes reports of damage to crops and of harm to daily life, including injuries, threats, and sightings, and the forms are on that page. The town also asks for photos and video. The person who took them sends them free of charge, and the town uses them in its publicity. Send them to kankyo@town.yugawara.kanagawa.jp or nousui@town.yugawara.kanagawa.jp. The page asks you to add the date, the place, and what was happening, and not to take a risk in order to film a monkey.
Food, a bite, and empty houses
Do not feed them, and do not leave food where they can reach it. The town's wild-animal page says not to give monkeys human food, and not to leave fruit or vegetable scraps outside, where wild animals eat them. The macaque page says the same: do not feed them, and do not leave anything that could become food outdoors. What to do in the moment you meet one is in the T1 guide.
On 17 September 2026 a man in his forties was bitten by a group of monkeys. The injuries were minor. The town said it was the first biting in the area. TV Asahi reported it on 20 September 2026, and FNN on 5 October 2026.
Empty houses are part of what the town has named. The macaque page says vacant houses scattered through town are being used as places to sleep at night, and that the town, with the prefecture, will work out roost-blocking: making those roosts unusable. On the page updated on 2 February 2026, that work is still being planned.
Ask before the monkeys are at the door. Firecrackers and rocket fireworks are there for residents who request them, and the division to call is the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Division, 0465-63-2111, extensions 733 and 734, on the town's macaque page. The patrol's history is Twenty Years of Chasing Monkeys in Yugawara. The guide to the T1 troop is the one to read before a walk on the hills above town.