Latest news with #HidetadaSudo
Japan Times
15-05-2025
- General
- Japan Times
Irresponsible climbing prompts debate over who should pay for Mount Fuji rescues
Following incidents in which people have been stranded on Mount Fuji as a result of irresponsible climbing, debate has erupted in cities near the national landmark over whether to make offseason hikers pay out of pocket for rescue fees. At a news conference held last Friday, Hidetada Sudo, the mayor of the city of Fujinomiya in Shizuoka Prefecture, expressed anger over some climbers' actions that suggest they have underestimated the dangers of the nation's tallest mountain. 'They are climbing on their own without listening (to warnings) and end up getting stranded,' said Sudo. 'The cost of rescuing them is enormous — I think that such fees should be borne by those stranded. It's their own responsibility.' Currently, fees for rescue from mountains around the country are in most cases paid from tax revenue, and are free for those who have been rescued. The situation has received heightened attention since an incident last month in which a Chinese university student studying in Japan had to be rescued from Mount Fuji twice in the span of a few days, after he went back to the mountain to retrieve his phone that he lost while being airlifted during his first rescue. Sudo also said that such inexperienced climbers have little regard for the grave danger rescue teams put themselves in to save those stranded irrespective of circumstances on the 3,776 meter-tall mountain, where conditions during the offseason can be incredibly risky. On the Yamanashi Prefecture side of Mount Fuji, Shigeru Horiuchi, mayor of the city of Fujiyoshida, agreed, saying at a news conference Tuesday that the cost of flying a helicopter for a rescue can be up to between ¥600,000 and ¥800,000. 'With the convenience of smartphones, I feel that there is an increasing tendency for people to call for help casually as if they were calling for a cab when they are stranded,' said Horiuchi. 'As a way to warn climbers to not climb with naive assumptions, we should charge the rescue fees.' The climbing season for Mount Fuji is between July and the beginning of September. During the offseason, the temperature can drop to well below freezing and the weather can be changeable, factors many inexperienced climbers tend to underestimate before going in ill-prepared. On Tuesday, Shizuoka Prefecture Gov. Yasutomo Suzuki said that although this is a problem for Mount Fuji, similar cases are seen across the country. Given that free rescue in the event of a disaster is assured under the law, he urged the national government to assess the issue.
SoraNews24
15-05-2025
- SoraNews24
Angry Japanese mayor wants off-season Mt. Fuji hikers to pay costs of their rescue operations
' They are taking Mt. Fuji too lightly.' Being located at the foot of Mt. Fuji is a source of pride for the Shizuoka Prefecture town of Fujinomiya and its residents. That proximity to Japan's tallest and most famous mountain, though, has also become a problem for the city. Mt. Fuji's has an official climbing season, which runs from mid-summer to early fall. However, it's not like there's a fence running around the whole mountain, so even as Shizuoka and Yamanashi (the two prefectures Mt. Fuji straddles the border of) tell people to refrain from hiking its upper trails during the off season, every year a number of people ignore the warnings, and a number of them need to be rescued. When those rescues take place on or near Mt. Fuji's Fujinomya Trail, it's the Fujinomiya Municipal Fire Department that has to go get the overconfident off-season climbers and bring them back down to safety. Fujinomiya mayor Hidetada Sudo is fed up with the situation, and during his regularly scheduled press conference on May 9, he called for new regulations that would force off-season hikers to pay the bill for rescue operations needed to bail them out of trouble, saying 'They are taking Mt. Fuji too lightly.' ▼ Video of the frustrated Sudo 'They are not listening to the warnings and selfishly choosing to climb [during the off season],' Sudo lamented. 'The cost of rescue operations is tremendous, so shouldn't the burden of paying those costs be carried by the people requiring [off-season] rescues? They have a responsibility for the results of their actions.' During his statements, Sudo specifically referenced the Chinese-national college student who had to be rescued from the side of Mt. Fuji two separate times over the course of five days last month, having made a second off-season climb attempt to look for his smartphone, which he'd lost during his first unauthorized hike. Sudo made a point of acknowledging that even the lives of off-season hikers are precious, and that rescuing them is a must, regardless of them willfully not heeding safety warnings. However, he feels that off-season hikers are giving insufficient consideration to not only the costs of operations, but the risks they pose to rescue team members' lives as well, saying 'Because there is no rule [requiring off-season hikers to pay for rescue costs], they have a carefree attitude about climbing [in the off season] and asking to be rescued' and that rescued off-season hikers have described their motivations with such shallow justifications as 'The mountain is there, so I wanted to climb it' and 'I liked the idea of the adventure.' Currently, rescue operation expenses, including those for off-season rescues, are paid for through government funds. Though there is a precedent of Saitama Prefecture having a regulation that requires unauthorized hikers to pay fuel expenses for helicopter rescue missions, following Sudo's comments Shizuoka Prefecture governor Yasutomo Suzuki said that he would like the federal government to be involved in setting the policy, and plans to discuss the matter with relevant officials. With the weather getting warmer, though, the temptation is likely growing for those drawn to the idea of climbing Mt. Fuji before the official season begins. It's worth saying once again that, despite the invitingly gentle slope Mt. Fuji seems to have when viewed from afar, it's a serious mountain where unpredictable severe weather, altitude sickness, and other factors can create life-threatening conditions of the sort you don't want to get caught in during the off-season, when ranger stations and other facilities on the mountain are largely unstaffed. So if you are looking to climb to Japan's tallest peak, do it the smart way: during the climbing season. Source: FNN Prime Online, TV Asahi Top image: Pakutaso ● Want to hear about SoraNews24's latest articles as soon as they're published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
