The popularity of climbing Mt Fuji continues unabated. The summer mountain climbing season is in full swing, and long lines of climbers hoping to view the sunrise at the top of Mt Fuji snake towards the summit from before daybreak.

The climbers should follow climbing etiquette and heed safety precautions so they can enjoy a pleasant ascent and descent on the mountain.

Mt Fuji, which has captivated the hearts and minds of the Japanese people, is a sacred mountain that has long been an object of worship. In 2013, Mt Fuji was officially registered as a world cultural heritage site.

How can the mountain’s sanctity be preserved while so many climbers continue to scale it? This is a current issue that needs to be addressed.

During the period from July to September, between 200,000 and 300,000 people will hike up and down Mt Fuji. On weekends, the number of climbers can be double that on weekdays, which creates heavy congestion. The mountain huts near the summit, which are convenient for climbers wishing to see the sunrise from the mountaintop, become fully booked one after another, and many are constantly full.

According to a survey conducted on the mountain’s Yamanashi Prefecture side during the busy time, 43 per cent of respondents said they felt frustrated by the high number of climbers. Twenty-three per cent even said they had been in a dangerous situation when other climbers forced their way past.

If these problems are left unresolved, a major accident could occur, such as a tumbling climber causing others to fall like dominoes. If the number of people on Mt Fuji increases too much, the mountain’s mystique could be tarnished and its value as a World Heritage site shaken.

Target ideal numbers

Taking steps to settle on an appropriate number of climbers will be inescapable.

When Mt Fuji was registered as a world cultural heritage site, Unesco also called for the development of a visitor management strategy.

The government plans to determine a target for the ideal number of climbers who access the mountain each day. It will include this figure in a report on the status of conservation efforts on the mountain, to be submitted by December 2018.

The Yamanashi and Shizuoka prefectural governments are using the Global Positioning System and other methods to survey the movements of climbers on the mountain. It will be necessary to carefully analyse the congestion on the mountain to establish an appropriate number of daily climbers.

Concrete measures also are required. Staggering the visits by climbers would be one way to alleviate congestion on trails up the mountain. From this summer, both prefectures have published online calendars showing what dates are forecast to be busy, and it is hoped that these moves will lead to campaigns promoting the enjoyment of climbing on weekdays, when Mt Fuji is less crowded.

Both prefectures ask each climber to voluntarily pay a ¥1,000 fee to help conservation efforts on Mt Fuji, which is used to manage and maintain trails on the mountain. In 2016, 65 per cent of climbers who trekked up Mt Fuji from the Yamanashi side and 51 per cent of climbers from the Shizuoka side paid the fee.

There have been calls in some quarters for this fee to be made compulsory. It will be vital to properly ascertain how much impact this would have on ensuring that an ideal number of climbers access the mountain.

Ensuring the safety of climbers also is an issue that must not be forgotten in the visitor management strategy. A noticeable number of non-Japanese climbers are lightly dressed in T-shirts and sneakers when they tackle the mountain. It will be essential to widely convey basic knowledge about climbing Mt Fuji, such as the risk of falling rocks and sudden changes in the weather.

The Japan News

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2017