Japanese officials are urging Mount Fuji climbers to be more careful after five people died on the mountain within a week, marking an unusually deadly start to the climbing season.
Three people died within 24 hours on one side of the mountain, in Shizuoka Prefecture, which opened for the climbing season on July 10, the local police said. Another died on July 14.
All four were Japanese men in their 60s and 70s, the Shizuoka police said. One died of a fall, one became sick, and the cause of death for the other two was unclear. All four were solo climbers.
On the other side of the mountain, in Yamanashi Prefecture, where trails opened July 1, a 58-year-old visitor from Hong Kong died on July 8, officials said. The man became unconscious while climbing with his wife, the local media outlet Kyodo News reported.
All of last year, seven deaths were reported on Mount Fuji, the country’s tallest mountain.
Just before this year’s climbing season began, the police said that they had found three bodies near the mountain’s summit. Some, they believed, had been there for months. Separately, a professional climber suffered acute heart failure and died while ascending the mountain days before its trails opened, the police said.
As Mount Fuji’s popularity has soared in recent years, officials have become increasingly worried about overcrowding and dangerous climbing practices on the 12,400-foot mountain. Although the number of people who reach the mountain’s summit has remained steady over the past decade, at about 200,000 to 300,000 each year, the number of people who visit the start of the trails — and who might climb part of the way — increased to five million in 2019 from about three million in 2014, according to data from Yamanashi Prefecture.
After the latest deaths, officials are urging climbers to make sure they are adequately prepared and to avoid overexerting themselves. One of the authorities’ concerns is climbers who are unprepared for the severe and unpredictable weather on the top of the mountain, which can differ drastically from conditions on the ground.
Ryuji Ohashi, a spokesman for the Shizuoka police, said that climbers should stop their ascent if weather conditions begin to deteriorate. The climate on the mountain can change and turn dangerous quickly, which can make it difficult for rescue teams to reach climbers, Mr. Ohashi added.
Climbers “should put the highest priority on their lives,” he said.
The official Mount Fuji climbing social media account posted on Wednesday that there were “many people wearing light clothing that is not appropriate for climbing Japan’s highest peak.”
After the deaths of three climbers within the first 24 hours of trails opening, the Shizuoka police posted a video to social media of rescuers on Mount Fuji kneeling as they were pummeled by heavy winds to illustrate the severe weather conditions. The post urged people to always check the weather forecast before climbing.
“This is a matter of life and death. Choose life over the summit,” the post said.
The authorities have also long worried about climbers who try to ascend the summit without resting overnight at one of the huts that dot the trails. Climbing without breaks through the night can result in altitude sickness and hypothermia, officials have warned.
This climbing season, Yamanashi Prefecture for the first time is capping the daily number of hikers and requiring them to pay a fee equivalent to about $12.50. It has also installed a gate at the start of its trail, which will be closed from 4 p.m. to 3 a.m.
AloJapan.com