Fuji climbers may have to pay to reach peak

Masanori Matsumoto / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

KOFU--Municipalities in Yamanashi Prefecture adjacent to Mt. Fuji are considering charging visitors who climb the mountain to help cover the costs of such things as first-aid facilities, mountain toilet maintenance and garbage disposal.

More and more people are trekking up Mt. Fuji every year. According to the Yamanashi and Shizuoka prefectural governments, from 2000 to 2006 about 200,000 people climbed Mt. Fuji each year. However, in 2007 the total jumped to 350,000 and in 2008 a whopping 430,000 people trekked up the famous mountain.

This year, as of Aug. 28, 250,000 climbers had set out from the Yoshidaguchi base station in Yamanashi Prefecture, the most popular climbing route--the first time the mark has been reached.

Why has traffic on the Yoshidaguchi route increased so rapidly in recent years?

"Building and improving mountain toilets, and creating changing areas for women in mountain lodges, has made climbing Mt. Fuji more comfortable," a Fujiyoshida municipal government official said.

However, building and running such facilities costs the central and local governments and mountain lodges a total of 35 million yen per year.

Local governments also carry the heavy responsibility of ensuring climber safety and protecting the mountain's natural environment.

A visit to a first-aid center near the mountain's eighth station on Aug. 9 found a doctor and a nurse tending to troubled climbers.

"Most of the patients receiving treatment here are suffering from altitude sickness," Dr. Yoshikane Maeda said.

Even though the doctors who serve at the first-aid center do so on a volunteer basis, the center's operating costs ran to 1.6 million yen last year, a burden that was shouldered jointly by the Fujiyoshida municipal government and four mountain lodges.

At midnight on Aug. 9, the trail leading up from the eighth station's mountain lodge was crowded with climbers, some wearing flashlights on their heads, heading to the peak for sunrise.

At 4:30 a.m., as the sun came in to view from the packed summit, some of the climbers raised their arms in the air.

Soon after, a line of about 100 people had formed outside a toilet at the seventh station. There are 17 toilets along the ascending route from the Yoshidaguchi station, but only one on the trail down.

"I can't believe there's only one toilet on the descending route, "a 23-year-old female company employee from Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, complained.

At busy times, the waiting time for the toilet can be as long as 50 minutes.

Cleaning and maintenance of the environmentally friendly toilet, which uses microorganisms to accelerate the decomposition of waste, costs about 10 million yen per year.

Half of that amount is covered by the central government, and the rest is paid by local governments and mountain lodges.

The central government gives subsidies to private mountain lodges and local governments to build and maintain toilets in national and quasi-national parks, but the Environment Ministry has decided to abolish the system for budgetary reasons.

Strong opposition from mountaineers and academics has convinced the ministry to consider introducing a new subsidy system.

Yoichi Inoue, the head of the Mt. Fuji Yoshidaguchi Ryokan Kumiai association, said, "Toilets are needed, but the burden of constructing them will be too much for mountain lodges and local governments."

Another thorny issue for local governments is the litter left behind by the thousands of climbers. The Fujiyoshida municipal government last year collected 1.7 tons of plastic bottles and other garbage discarded along the climbing route.

For happy walks, money talks

Six municipalities in Yamanashi Prefecture and other related bodies hope to introduce a fee for using the Yoshidaguchi trail, with the funds to go towards protecting the environment and ensuring climbers' safety. A discussion panel launched in April will work out the amount of the fee and other details.

Similar ideas have been proposed in the past, but were shelved due to concern that the introduction of a fee would simply cause climbers to use routes originating in Shizuoka Prefecture.

"We're not discussing the idea [of a fee system]," an official at the Shizuoka prefectural government said.

The Fujiyoshida municipal government conducted a survey in cooperation with the University of Tokyo to assess public opinion regarding the envisioned fee system. While the survey results are still being compiled, a municipal government official said, "Many respondents are supportive of the idea."