According to a regional official on Tuesday, hikers who use the most popular path to ascend Mount Fuji in Japan will start paying $13 per hike starting in July. The price will be capped to reduce traffic and increase safety.
Japan’s tallest peak, which receives over 220,000 people during the July–September climbing season despite being covered in snow for most of the year, is seeing an increasing number of climbers.
Starting on July 1, each individual will need to pay 2,000 yen ($13) to access the Yoshida Trail, which leads up the well-known volcano.
Daily entries to the trail will be capped at 4,000 people, with entry banned between 4:00 pm and 2:00 am, under an ordinance approved Monday by Yamanashi region.
“After Covid restrictions were lifted, we started seeing more people. We want them to dress appropriately for the mountain and be well prepared,” Toshiaki Kasai, an official at the local government, told AFP.
“We will ask visitors to monitor social media for up-to-date information about the daily visitor count,” he added.
Every summer, stories about tourists ascending Mount Fuji without the proper mountaineering gear appear in the Japanese media.
Many attempt to reach the 3,776-meter (12,388-foot) summit without rest stops and end up sick or injured as a result. Some people sleep on the trail or build fires for warmth.
There are three more primary routes up the active volcano that are still open for climbing.
However, the majority of visitors choose for the Yoshida Trail, which is easily reachable from Tokyo; official data indicates that over 60% of climbers pick this path.
From downtown Tokyo, it takes around two hours to reach Mount Fuji, which is visible for kilometers around.
The mountain has been immortalised in countless Japanese artworks, including Hokusai’s world-famous “Great Wave”.
