MOUNT FUJI: With its millions of visitors every year and the supply trucks, buses, noodle shops and fridge magnets, Japan’s Mount Fuji is no longer the peaceful pilgrimage site it once was.
Now officials have had enough, saying the number of hikers trekking up the world-famous volcano — night and day — is risky and an ecological embarrassment, according to AFP.
The governor of the local region said last week that “Mount Fuji is screaming”.
appreciating its religious importance and its inspiration to artists, UNESCO added this”internationally recognized icon of Japan” to its World Heritage List in 2013.
Mount Fuji a blessing and a curse
But as has happened in places such Rio de Janeiro’s Sugarloaf Mountain or as Bruges in Belgium, the site has been both a blessing and a curse.
The numbers of visitors more than doubled between 2012 and 2019 to 5.1 million, and that is just for Yamanashi prefecture, the main starting point.
