A Japanese city will install a huge barrier in a popular Mount Fuji photography area following complaints from residents about the behavior of foreign tourists.
Construction of the net, which will be 2.5 meters high and 20 meters long, will begin next week, an official from the Fujikawaguchiko city administration said on Friday.
“It’s regrettable that we have to do this because of some tourists who can’t respect the rules,” leaving rubbish in the area or ignoring traffic rules, he told AFP.
Tourism in Japan has increased since the end of Covid pandemic restrictions and records record numbers, with 3 million visitors in March, which had never happened before.
The city of Fujikawaguchiko has many spots to photograph the emblematic Mount Fuji, the highest mountain in Japan.
But the view is particularly well-known because the silhouette of the mountain appears above a Lawson convenience store, a ubiquitous chain in the country.
The visual overlap “spread a buzz on social media that this place is very Japanese, which made it a very popular spot for photos,” the municipality official said on condition of anonymity.
Tourists, mostly foreigners, crowd the narrow sidewalk in front of the store and often ignore the insistent warnings from traffic cops.
They also park without permission at a nearby dental clinic and climb onto the building’s roof to get the perfect photo, the employee claims.
The excessive flow of visitors and their behavior have already led to other containment measures in the country.
At Mount Fuji itself, authorities will start charging an access fee and set a visitor limit on the volcano’s main climbing route in the coming months.
In Kyoto, the government banned tourists from the streets of the geisha district after cases of harassment against women.
