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Authorities in a Japanese town on Tuesday finished installing a large chain-link barrier blocking views of Mount Fuji, a deliberate move to stop unruly tourists from taking photos at the site.
Local residents have long complained about foreign tourists who flock to Fujikawaguchiko hoping to get the perfect photo of the iconic stratovolcano, littering, trespassing and breaking traffic rules.
The spot in question offers year-round views of the snow-capped mountains that tower over the Lawson convenience store, and residents say it’s a popular spot for large crowds to gather, illegally park and block other pedestrians from passing along the sidewalk.
The black netting used to obscure the view measures 20 metres by 2.5 metres.
“I hope the internet will help prevent dangerous behaviour,” Michie Motomochi, 41, a resident of Fujikawaguchiko who runs a Japanese sweets shop, told AFP.
“I think it’s a shame to put it up, it’s obviously an iconic shot,” said Christina Roys, 36, a tourist from New Zealand.
(Getty)
“But it’s totally understandable. We were here last night and were able to take some last photos before the wall is built and there were a lot of people there,” she said.
Workers in the town of Fujikawaguchiko set up screens to stop tourists from taking photos of Mount Fuji (Getty)
According to The Japan Times, the net is also intended to give a respite to the nearby Ibishi Dental Clinic, where tourists sometimes park their cars without permission and climb onto the roof to take photos.
“It was not uncommon for people to yell abuse at us or throw lit cigarettes at us when we asked them to move their cars,” the clinic said in a statement to CNN.
Fujikawaguchiko is a Japanese resort area in Yamanashi Prefecture, about 100km west of Tokyo.
Workers are setting up black shade netting across from the Lawson Kawaguchiko Station store in Fujikawaguchiko town (EPA)
Since Japan reopened to foreign tourists after the pandemic lockdown, huge numbers of travelers have returned to the country, with more than 3 million people visiting the country each month in March and April 2024 – a new record and part of a trend that is likely to continue.
Misbehaving tourists are a problem in many popular destinations around the world: Venice has started charging day-trippers a €5 entrance fee, and Greece has capped the number of visitors to Athens’ famous Acropolis. But what’s particularly problematic for Fujikawaguchiko is that tourists usually only come to the small town for a day trip to take photos there. They tend to return to Tokyo afterwards, meaning the town’s local economy doesn’t benefit much from them.
“We’ve seen people running out onto the roads and using electronic devices. [scooters] “There’s no end to people who don’t follow traffic rules and cause accidents. Recently there have been a lot of accidents involving foreign tourists,” Haruto Tsuchiya, 49, a local who works in the tourism industry, told Reuters.
A tourist takes a photo of Mount Fuji appearing above a convenience store after a fence was erected blocking off the popular tourist spot at Lake Kawaguchi in Fuji (Reuters)
Tourists crowd the sidewalk to take photos of Mount Fuji across from a convenience store in Fujikawaguchiko (Getty)
The town decided to install chain-link fences in April after signs and security guards failed to keep tourists away.
“It is unfortunate that we have had to take this action,” officials said at the time.
“Overtourism and all the consequences that come with it – litter, increased carbon dioxide emissions and reckless climbers – is the biggest problem facing Mount Fuji,” Izumi Seigo, a Yamanashi prefecture official, told CNN last year.
Authorities have also launched a new online booking system for Mount Fuji’s Yoshida route, limited the number of climbers per day to 4,000 and imposed a mandatory fee of 2,000 yen.
