Mt. Fuji Climbing Season Ends with No Confusion Under New Rules

Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi Pref., Sept. 10 (Jiji Press)--This year's climbing season for Mount Fuji ended on Tuesday without any major confusion over new restrictions that were imposed at the start of the season.

The hiking trails in Yamanashi and Shizuoka prefectures in central Japan were closed down at Japan's highest peak on the day.

Starting this season, Yamanashi introduced a daily limit of 4,000 climbers and a fee of 2,000 yen per person, in hopes of clamping down on dangerous attempts at so-called bullet climbing and to ease congestion.

Meanwhile, Shizuoka introduced a voluntary preregistration system for mountain climbers.

The new rules have been effective as measures to tackle overtourism to a certain extent, with the number of climbers scaling the mountain from Yamanashi or Shizuoka declining compared with last year's climbing season figures.

"We've managed to eliminate reckless climbing considerably," Yamanashi Governor Kotaro Nagasaki said.

At the Yoshida Trail, used by around 60 pct of Mount Fuji climbers, Yamanashi set up a gate at the fifth station. The gate was closed between 4 p.m. and 3 a.m. during the season, in hopes of preventing people from climbing the 3,776-meter mountain through the night.

During last year's climbing season, there were five days in which the number of Mount Fuji climbers exceeded 4,000. This year, however, there were none.

"We've managed to achieve our goal of controlling the number of climbers, without major issues," a Yamanashi prefectural government official said. "The restrictions were definitely effective."

Shizuoka, which opted not to impose restrictions for this season, required climbers to watch a video explaining the hiking rules when they go through the preregistration process.

According to the Shizuoka prefectural government, 70 pct of people who passed through the fifth stations on the Fujinomiya, Gotemba and Subashiri routes completed the preregistration process.

"For our first initiative, we'd say that (the measure) was a huge success," a Shizuoka government official said.

The number of deaths of Mount Fuji climbers totaled five this season, however, higher than in an average season.

The measures taken this season have not completely eradicated bullet climbing and overnight climbing.

Shizuoka Governor Yasutomo Suzuki said at a press conference Tuesday that there were fewer climbers ignoring climbing rules, but the number of such people was "not zero."

"We plan to continue to educate (climbers) and raise the alarm" on related risks, he said.

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