Can't Climb Mt. Fuji Anymore?

Everybody knows Mt. Fuji and lucky ones have climbed it to see that gorgeous sunrise at the summit. Well, don't be too sure that you can climb anytime.

Mt. Fuji is a popular mountain to climb. You can drive yourself or take a bus to the fifth station, and up you climb from there to the summit. Bygone days climbers would first visit a shrine at its foot, pray for safety and climb a step at a time all the way to the summit.

Either way, Mt. Fuji is for the Japanese THE mountain to climb once in the lifetime.

Lately, foreign tourists drive up to the fifth station and rush up to the top of the World's Cultural Heritage. Traditionally a divine mount only for the purified could afford to climb, Mt. Fuji is now a mere sightseeing point even for the unpurified can crawl up. Not every foreign tourist, including the Chinese, is eco-minded; some of them dare ignore lavatories, others reluctant to pay the climbing fee.

The sacred mountain is no longer sacred; its ecology is pitifully hampered.

The situation is such that the authorities have ruled to regulate the number of climbers per day effective from three years from now. A report is to be submitted next February to UNESCO's World Heritage Center to the effect that the ecological environment surrounding Mt. Fuji is fatally damaged and that some regulatory measures are due.

A total of 230 thousand climbers hit the summit this summer. When regulatory measures are effected, there will be a restriction on the total climbing population per day, barrier stations at the mouth of every mountain trail, and possibly an inflated counter at the eighth station to regulate traffic.

Mt. Fuji is a sacred mountain and should be kept as such. Now registered a World Cultural Heritage, the mountain calls for a fair degree of protection and preservation.

News Source: Sankei Shimbun