Ok, so I live in Japan and have seen these Asian Giant Hornets (called suzumebachi in Japanese) several times while here. I don’t want people to not be wary of them, ESPECIALLY in regards to the environment, but it seems like there’s a lot of fear-mongering and panic about them attacking people going on.
This one here came by while I was taping an ant. It ignored me completely, and if it did notice me, didn’t feel the need to attack. When I saw it, I was very still and waited for it to leave.
I have personally NEVER seen more than one of these guys at once. As far as I know they don’t attack in swarms. I also have never seen or heard of one attacking people randomly. If you see one and it seems aggressive, you should obviously try to get away as calmly and quickly as possible.
I have also seen more of them dead or dying than I have alive— and again, ALWAYS on their own.
TLDR: it is okay to be scared of these guys, but the likelihood of being attacked by one is pretty low. The impact their introduction will have on North American ecosystems is what we should be more concerned about rn.