Officials in Japan are calling for new rules to charge climbers who require rescue from Mount Fuji outside the official climbing season, as concerns rise over high emergency service costs and the safety of personnel deployed to deal with such incidents.
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The mayors of Fujiyoshida and Fujinomiya, along with the governor of Shizuoka prefecture, are urging the national government to amend legislation so that local authorities can impose such rescue fees during the off-season, which falls outside a three-month climbing window for the mountain in summer.
The cost of a rescue helicopter could be as much as 500,000 yen (US$3,440) an hour, the Shizuoka governor said, with mountain rescue teams on the ground and medical facilities adding to total cost.
The authorities’ pleas came after a Chinese university student was rescued near the peak of the 3,776-metre mountain twice within four days in April.
The 27-year-old man, who was not named, was initially helped off the mountain after he became nauseous and disoriented close to the summit and lost his mobile phone, crampons and other climbing equipment.
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Four days later, another rescue team was deployed to save the man after he collapsed around 3,000 metres above sea level, apparently due to altitude sickness. After being carried down the mountain on a stretcher and handed over to doctors, he said he had returned to the mountain to try to find his mobile phone.