Fuji City in Shizuoka Prefecture has decided to erect a fence near a popular Mt. Fuji photo/video op location; the Fujisan Yumeno Ohashi (aka Mt Fuji Great Dream Bridge) pictured below. This particular spot is commonly seen in Instagram Reels and TikTok clips, resulting in an issue with tourists overrunning the area. Tourists often times want that “perfect” shot walking up/down the stairway, posing half-way up the stairs, posing at the sign, or walking across the bridge alone; so as one can imagine, there is a queue as people try to get those shots). IMHO, the barrier is simply a band-aid that doesn’t actually fix the root cause issue.
Last month, Fuji-Kawaguchiko City in Yamanashi Prefecture erected a black plastic sheet fronting a Lawson’s (to block the view of Mt Fuji); this location also became a popular spot for tourists to photograph and video Mt Fuji (after social media influencers posted similar photos and videos from the spot). The roadside “fencing/covering” put up by the local government is also a stop-gap measure that like the Shizuoka bridge location, doesn’t actually fix the problem since as mentioned in the article, tourists are just finding different spots.
I’ve also seen some wacky comments (as is typical on sites like Japan Today) like why they didn’t just place the plastic sheet on top of the Lawson roof (Lawson is a private company that would have to agree to having the local government put up a barrier like that; no way are they going to agree to that). This also highlights one of the challenges with over-tourism or not even having a plan in place to deal with the logistical aspects of increased tourist activity. Something like this requires a broader national plan that regional municipalities can then tailor for their own needs. Just putting up barriers haphazardly, does not solve the problem.
It is usually just a small minority with bad manners/little respect (like being noisy, leaving behind trash, blocking traffic, etc) that requires having to take a “hammer” approach like this. Education would help as a starting point (example: JNTO’s informational/promotional publications).
Similarly, this upcoming Mt Fuji climbing season will also be affected with new regulations (due to climbers not properly prepared to make the journey, ill-mannered climbers that leave behind a lot of trash, and also the reality of the increase in visitors doing the climb which has created climber “traffic jams” on the trail as well as impacting the logistics for the lodges along with sanitation).
