They are scenes few would associate with Japan’s highest peak: human traffic jams, foothills littered with garbage and inappropriately attired hikers — some attempting the ascent in sandals.

But these sights are all too familiar for Miho Sakurai, a veteran ranger who has patrolled the slopes of Mount Fuji for the past seven years.

“There are definitely too many people on the mountain at the moment; the numbers are much higher than before,” says Sakurai. When Mount Fuji was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites in 2013, the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), UNESCO’s advisory organ, urged mountain officials to manage the crowds. However, the number of visitors to the mountain’s popular fifth hiking station has more than doubled from 2 million in 2012 to over 5 million visitors in 2019, according to the Yamanashi prefectural government.

And since the annual climbing season opened just a couple of months ago in July, around 65,000 hikers have reached the summit, an increase of 17% from 2019.

Officials say a post-COVID tourism boom has brought thousands more to the mountain, which straddles Japan’s Yamanashi and Shizuoka prefectures. And as Mount Fuji marks the 10th anniversary of its UNESCO designation this year, they fear the environmental situation has reached a “critical point.”

“Overtourism — and all the subsequent consequences like rubbish, rising CO2 emissions and reckless hikers — is the biggest problem facing Mount Fuji,” says Masatake Izumi, a Yamanashi prefectural government official.

Of Mount Fuji’s 10 hiking stations, the fifth (called “Gogome”) is located roughly halfway up the 3,776-meter mountain. It receives 90% of the mountain’s visitors, most of whom take buses, taxis and EV cars from Tokyo along the Fuji Subaru Line mountain road.

Built almost 60 years ago amid Japan’s era of motorization, the Fuji Subaru Line gave visitors and families direct access to a point halfway up the mountain.

Izumi, the Yamanashi official, says visitors can no longer take private cars up to the fifth station unless they are fully electric, but that has resulted in more buses ferrying large groups of visitors to the station.

The hordes of hikers are also putting the mountain’s limited toilet facilities and four medical stations under increasing pressure, he adds.

At the busy fifth station, as busloads of hikers swarm toward the Yoshida trail — the most popular of the mountain’s four routes — Tomoyo Takahashi, a Mount Fuji conservation fund employee, urges them to donate 1,000 yen (US$7) to keep the mountain clean.

“It’s like Disneyland here as there are too many people,” she says. (SD-Agencies)

Words to Learn 相关词汇

【横跨】

héngkuà

straddle

exist on each side of something

【运输】

yùnshū

ferry

transport people or goods in a vehiclelly regularly and often

很少有人会把这些景象与日本最高峰联系在一起：人流拥堵、垃圾遍地、徒步旅行者衣着不得体 —— 有些人穿着凉鞋来登山。

但这些景象樱井美穗再熟悉不过了，她是一名资深护林员，过去七年来一直在富士山巡逻。樱井说：“现在来爬山的人肯定太多了，比以前多得多。”

当富士山2013年被列入联合国教科文组织世界遗产名录时，联合国教科文组织的咨询机构 —— 国际古迹遗址理事会就曾敦促当地官员对人流进行管理。

然而，根据山梨县政府的数据，前往备受欢迎的第五徒步旅行站的游客人数已从2012年的200万人增加到2019年的500多万人，增长了一倍多。

自登山季于7月开始以来，约6.5万名登山者上了山顶，比2019年增加了17%。

富士山横跨日本的山梨县和静冈县，官员们表示，新冠疫情之后的旅游热潮带来了成千上万的游客。今年是富士山被联合国教科文组织指定为世界遗产十周年，他们担心富士山的环境状况已经到了“临界点”。

山梨县政府官员正武泉说：“过度旅游与之带来的后果，如垃圾、二氧化碳排放量增加和盲目的徒步旅行者，是富士山面临的最大问题。

在富士山的10个登山站中，第五站（名

为“五合目”）位于海拔 3776 米的半山腰，90%的游客都是从东京沿富士斯巴鲁线乘坐公共汽车、出租车和电动汽车来这里的。

富士斯巴鲁线建成于近60年前的日本汽车普及之时，为游客和家庭提供了直达半山腰的通道。

山梨县官员伊泉说，除非是纯电车，否则游客不能再乘坐私家车前往五合目，但这也导致更多的公共汽车将大批游客送到这里。他补充说，成群结队的登山者也给山上有限的厕所和四个医疗站带来了越来越大的压力。

在繁忙的五合目，当一车车的登山者涌向吉田登山道（富士山四条登山路线中最受欢迎的一条）时，富士山保护基金的员工高桥智洋呼吁他们捐出1000日元（7 美元）帮助富士山保持清洁。她说：“这里像迪斯尼乐园，人太多了。”(Translated by Debra)