Overcrowding in the mountain has worsened, with Subaru, the fifth and largest base station, had about 4 million visitors this summer, a 50% jump from 2013
FUJIYOSHIDA, Japan – On a grey, rainy Saturday, September 9, a steady stream of tour buses arrive at a base station of Japan’s Mount Fuji, depositing dozens of lightly dressed foreign tourists in front of souvenir shops and restaurants.
Mount Fuji, which straddles Yamanashi and Shizuoka prefectures in eastern Japan, has always been popular with local and overseas tourists. “It’s uncontrollable and we fear that Mt. Fuji will soon become so unattractive, nobody would want to climb it,” he said. Despite the frenetic pace of cleaning by janitors, businesses, and volunteers, social media is rife with posts about soiled bathrooms and mounds of litter along the climbing path.