Photo taken on Sept 10, 2025, shows a Mt. Fuji climbing route on the Shizuoka Prefecture side closed after the climbing season ended. - Photo: Kyodo
SHIZUOKA, (Japan): (Bernama-Kyodo) The number of people getting stranded on Mt. Fuji while climbing from the Shizuoka Prefecture side fell 44 per cent from the previous year, with no deaths reported, after stricter rules were introduced, Kyodo News Agency reported, according to local police.
While the total number of climbers using the prefecture's Fuji trails this season from July through September remained high at around 84,000, just 36 people required assistance, sharply down from the 64 people in the 2024 season, of whom six died, they said.
The country's highest mountain southwest of Tokyo had until recently been plagued by hiker-related problems, including people engaging in overnight "bullet climbing" to reach the 3,776-metre peak without sleeping in a trailside hut. There were also issues with climbers bringing minimal equipment or dressing too casually, such as in T-shirts, shorts and sandals.
As part of efforts to prevent people from climbing recklessly, the prefecture doubled the entrance fee to 4,000 yen (US$26) this year and barred people from entering trails between 2pm and 3am unless they had reserved a mountain lodge.
The same measures have been applied by Yamanashi Prefecture, which has one of the four climbing routes for Mt. Fuji, with the rest starting in Shizuoka Prefecture. The Yamanashi side has also seen a significant drop in mountain rescue cases after introducing the measures last year.
But with the measures only covering the climbing season, accidents have been reported outside of it. Such climbers include foreign tourists visiting in the closed season with no opportunity to climb the mountain when it is open and locals making impulsive decisions to scale the peak, according to local authorities.
Three Japanese men aged in their 30s to 50s were found dead near the crater in June 2024, while a United States (US) national in his 60s was rescued after suffering hypothermia this year while the mountain was still closed.
In April 2025, a male Chinese university student was rescued off the mountain by helicopter after falling ill near the summit and was then rescued again four days later due to poor health when he returned to the mountain to try to retrieve a smartphone he had left behind.
The Shizuoka prefectural government is considering introducing fines and charges for dispatching rescue helicopters to discourage reckless climbing. - Bernama-Kyodo
