Mount Fuji, So Popular It Hurts

The words printed on the buses that drive through Kawaguchiko, a scenic town in the foothills of Japan’s tallest and most sacred mountain, were as reassuring as they were disconcerting.

The message was a reminder that despite years of effort, the millions who visit the mountain and nearby towns each year and the plethora of businesses that serve them continue to have a profound impact on the environment, whether through mounting trash, poor air quality or suburban sprawl. Mount Fuji, or Fujisan as it’s known to the Japanese, is the nation’s most recognizable natural landmark, a conical volcano immortalized by artists like Katsushika Hokusai and Utagawa Hiroshige. These days, the mountain, less than two hours from Tokyo, is a playground for rich and poor. Climbing the mountain is on many hikers’ bucket lists.

But easy access to the mountain drivers can park about halfway to the peak has been a mixed blessing. Last year, nearly 320,000 people made the climb, yet 25 died trying. Illegally dumped garbage fills the forests. Traffic chokes surrounding roads and paths to the peak. Big events like the jazz festival at Kawaguchiko draw thousands of fans.

Countermeasures have been taken. Low waste toilets have been installed on the mountain, and tens of thousands of volunteers haul away tons of trash every year. Hybrid buses shuttle visitors to trailheads. This summer, climbers were asked to contribute a fee to help preserve the environment. But the measures will do only so much because the parade of visitors is likely to continue, especially now that Mount Fuji has been added to Unesco’s World Heritage list as a cultural asset (the 13th in Japan) for inspiring artists, poets and religious pilgrims.

Hearts swelled in Japan after the June 22 designation was announced. The question is whether it will draw so many more visitors that the qualities that made Mount Fuji a cultural asset in the first place will be diminished.

Mount Fuji is bracing for a big jump. Other heritage sites in Japan including Hiraizumi in Iwate Prefecture, Shirakawa-go in Gifu Prefecture and Yakushima Island in southern Japan all saw an increase in visitors after they joined the list in recent years.

Seiichi Kondo, Japan’s Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs and a former ambassador to Unesco, said that more visitors are expected to visit Fuji, but that regulations may be strengthened to offset any degradation. “After all, the main objective of the inscription of particular sites on the list is to mobilize international efforts to protect them from various dangers, such as military conflicts, development and tourism,” he wrote in an e-mail.

Mr. Kondo said the number of tourists has risen 15 percent so far this year indicative of the Japanese view that the mountain is “a special symbol of nature and their identity.” According to other estimates, the number of visitors could double in the coming years. In the first 10 days of July alone, the number of hikers who passed the Yoshida Gate, a popular path to the peak jumped 50 percent over the same period last year. Hikers were asked to bring portable toilet kits because the influx of visitors is overwhelming available infrastructure.

Officials had tried on and off for 20 years to have Mount Fuji named a World Heritage site, and its inscription was front page news in June, when my wife and I visited Japan. Eager to see the celebration, we rode two hours by train to Kawaguchiko, a town 10 miles from the mountain.

travel.nytimes.com