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The story
Mt. Fuji, straddling Shizuoka and Yamanashi, typically closes for the season in early September, but a TV Asahi crew caught people busting through barricades to push for the summit on the first weekend after this year’s closure. Once the mountain closes, its trails become legally off-limits under Article 46 of the Road Act, and violators can face up to six months’ imprisonment or a fine of up to 300,000 yen. Even so, rescue calls keep coming in, and there have reportedly been cases of mountain huts being vandalized. On 5ch, users debated how off-season climbers should be punished, how rescues should be handled, and moves being considered to make climbing registration mandatory and charge for rescue costs.
Sept 13 (Sun), 1:18 AM JST
TV Asahi (ANN)
Mt. Fuji had its first weekend since closing for the season. On the 12th, our cameras caught people pushing past barricades on a trail marked “No Entry,” climbing on despite bad weather. (Aired Sept. 12 on “Saturday Station”)
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Mountains and the sea have always been lawless zones anyway.
Rescue costs billed separately, of course.
Just let them die. That'd stop the secondary casualties too.
Bill them? They'll just skip out on paying.
The mountain huts are closed once the season's over.
There's no guarantee a rescue team reaches you before you're dead.
Sadly, yes.
They need to publicize this more.
How are you gonna get through life with a body like that?
(;゚Д゚) I'm fine — I bike round-trip between Saitama and Tokyo.
"Only climb if you can descend under your own power.
Note: if you get stranded, we'll recover your body next season, but we will not rescue you."
Even with a sign that carefully worded, they'll call for rescue anyway. No way they're just going to die quietly.
Is it actually legally binding? Are there real penalties?
If not, then it's not a crime at all.
Are you even Japanese?
If you were, you'd know a famous law like this one.
It's been in the news over and over.
Exactly.
They've got barricades properly set up and people are still busting through them.
Re: #37
Looked it up — the legal basis is Article 46 of the Road Act.
Violators face up to 6 months' imprisonment or a fine of up to 300,000 yen.
Thing is, these guys still call in for rescue when something goes wrong.
Ignore them and you'll just get another crowd kicking up a fuss.
Set up a paid hotline number with an AI voice loop that never actually connects, lol
Who are they even calling?
The phone line should be off during the closed season too.
During this year's pre-season prep, the locks were already broken and the place had been ransacked.
There have always been plenty of people like that.
Off-season climbers who break a hut's lock because it's cold, let themselves in to sleep, and drink whatever leftover drinks are lying around.
And remember, a few years back the rest house at the Fujinomiya Trail's 5th Station burned completely down because some idiot broke in during the closed season and lit a fire to keep warm.
Dunno, but wouldn't that affect people who actually work around Mt. Fuji?
I guess some people still go up for work even after closure, not just for rescue and search operations.
According to the official site, authorized personnel do still go up after closure.
In that case, I'd think they could just restrict the Subaru Line to authorized people only.
Way too many idiots don't get this.
It's just Sengen Shrine's opening/closing ritual, that's all it is.
Actually, climbing IS banned.
Under the Road Act, the route to the summit is closed to passage.
There's a real chance of being penalized for breaking the law.
https://www.fujisan-climb.jp/off-season/
That was terrifying.
If it's the one from the Niconico Live streamer, you can still find the video.
Though it might've been taken down by now.
Wasn't it edited down to the point you couldn't even tell the gender?
They're in final coordination on making climbing registration mandatory and charging for rescue costs.
https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/national/20260910-GYT1T00319/
So does that mean they're basically allowing climbing during the closed season?
Well, hardly anyone's actually dumb enough to call for rescue in practice anyway.
That's a separate issue.
Some of the people who register and enter during winter are serious pros training with full awareness of the risk, so just leave them alone.
They do sometimes die too, like in the Ukyo Katayama case (the former F1 driver who died in a winter climbing accident on Fuji), but that's just how it is — basically no need to go rescue them.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Mt. Fuji’s “closing” is a custom rooted in Sengen Shrine’s religious rites, but the legal basis for treating the trails themselves as off-limits after closure comes from a road-closure measure under Article 46 of the Road Act. In the thread, a misconception that “closed season doesn’t mean climbing is banned” clashed with posts pointing out that the ban does carry real legal weight, with replies laying out the statute and its penalties (up to six months’ imprisonment or a fine of up to 300,000 yen). Also raised as background: mountain huts sit closed during the off-season, which can delay rescues in an emergency, and there’s a history of huts being vandalized. According to reporting by the Yomiuri Shimbun, mandatory climbing registration and paid rescue fees are reportedly in final coordination — a broader safety overhaul for Mt. Fuji reaching beyond just the closed season, and an important piece of context that the original news report alone doesn’t make clear.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Speed+) thread “[🗻] “Foreign tour groups” spotted on Mt. Fuji trails after closure — reality of “10,000 climbers a year” during the off-season revealed.”
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