Okay... which of you guys has been traveling to Japan and dressing up as a monkey?

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TOKYO (Reuters) - Monkey business is anything but funny for one rural Japanese town where a roving simian has bitten 23 women over the past two days.

Officials in Shimosuwa, some 112 miles northwest of Tokyo, turned out with cages and tranquilizer guns Tuesday in an attempt to trap the beast.

"The monkey has been causing damage by stealing fruit since October, but this is the first time it has actually harmed people," a town official said.

Among the animal's victims was a 27-year-old television announcer, who was bitten on the back of the leg early on Tuesday, apparently while preparing for a shoot. Most of the other victims were attacked while taking out household garbage.

"We hope to capture the monkey or chase it back into the woods permanently, but if the worst comes to the worst we may have to shoot it," the official said.

Asked why the monkey's victims were all women, the official said: "I believe that monkeys attack things that seem weaker than they are. It wasn't, of course, because it liked women."

Although wild monkeys are native to some areas of Japan, Shimosuwa is not one of them.

Officials in another municipality plagued by monkeys took a novel approach to the problem earlier this year -- the city of Shibata, 160 miles northwest of Tokyo, used government subsidies meant to combat unemployment to hire four people as monkey chasers.