Planned Mount Fuji light rail line could transport 3 million hikers per year

Why not if it does not affect the amazing landscape ?

Personally, why would I pay so much for something so useless in crowded transportation.

Doesn’t the area have a problem with overtourism?

Now they want to bring in even more?

bizarre...

@Jonathan Prin @kurisupisu @dobre vam zajebava

Just keep in mind that Govt need project flowing, no matter whether is being actual needed or not.

Who would pay 10,000 yen for such a short distance?

Japan: we need to increase the number of tourists.

Tourists come.

Japan: We’re sick of tourists.

And only this year they restricted the number of people allowed to climb Mt Fuji.

No going to happen!

If Mt. Fuji is suffering under the strain of over-tourism, then it would seem that they should be making it more difficult to scale up, not less.

Haul the trash back on its way down too.

A bit of perspective!

In 2023, around 221,322 people climbed Mount Fuji during the climbing season. (Japan National Tourism Organization)

And the Yamanashi government is hoping to boost that number 3,000,000!

I cannot see any problems with that proposal, can you?

Thats about 20000 ppl per day peak, better start planning the toilets first, nah , right?

I really doubt that many people will pay 10,000 yen for such a short trip. After being stuck in the Subaru Line traffic jam, I was in favor of the project, but now seeing the fare, I'm not so sure. I really doubt all or most of those 3 million people will be climbing to the top.

Left side of mouth: There are too many tourists coming.

Right side of mouth: Let's find a way to bring in more tourists.

That's Japan.

10,000 yen per person

you can fly to Okinawa, Saipan, Taiwan with that money

"...operating two-car trains every six minutes for 10 hours per day..."

Not much different than trains departing from Tokyo Station...

This is a great idea. It will open the mountain up to many people. It should decrease the impact on the environment greatly with less people trundling up there and leaving their garbage behind. They can leave it on the train.

10000 yen is overpriced considering the distance and prices in Japan.

3 millions passengers a year going there is also over optimistic. External due diligence is necessary to evaluate properly costs and benefits of the project.

"Due to opposition from local residents, the prefecture plans to outline the project's future direction by the end of the year after receiving feedback."

Sounds a whole lot like the usual case in which everyone is opposed but you do it anyway after asking everyone to "cooperate".

Funny part is that people are often complaining now about how overcrowded Mt. Fuji is now, but they want even more people there? Won't be long before they're collecting the money and tickets from foreign visitors but asking them to leave at the same time, just like the rest of the nation.

Personally, I'd rather see Fuji from a distance than see the distance from Fuji.

I hope this does not happen. It will be a very bad thing for the mountain.

need more toilets not transit

talk about bending the rules of physics?? We just had reports of a lack of snow on the summit, immediately followed about proposals to have more millions more feet (how many feet you got?), what happens when you and the kids trudge thru the fresh snow (just same physics as ice skating!) Methinks somebody should have a sincere chat to Fuji Shan, will he get angry?

I doubt this is needed considering there are now way too many tourists overcrowding popular sites in Japan. Now Mt. Fuji will be packed with so many tourists it's going to ruin the atmosphere and vibe.

...and then they need more toilets, lots more toilets! Which use a lot of water and electricity, and create lots of hazardous waste that has to be dealt with. And more shops, more space to accomodate all these tourists. Why do these people think everything is scalable without limits, crazy. Oh, and why not use cablecars, cheaper to build and operate, great views from above as well. And much less vulnerable to earth movements than rail tracks.

At first I thought the article was building a rope way or something to the top, so 10.000 yen isn't to bad, but it's only a short journey to the base of my Fuji, that is a lot of money for a very short journey, I can't see that being a success, has there been any planning for waste disposal and toilets, etc ? Now if they built a narrow gauge railway that goes all the way around the base of my Fuji like a circular loop, this could link up with other Access points and would be great for sight seeing

Surely it was a mistake in insinuating or understanding that the ticket price would be ¥10,000 per customer! It was just some weird mistranslation from the original story in Japanese that makes it sound like that?

No one in their right mind would pay ¥10,000 for a ticket to go from the base to the fifth station.

I mean a one way bus ticket from Shinjuku to the fifth stage cost less than ¥4000 so…

The line would run along the Fuji Subaru Line, the toll road to the 5th station that serves as the starting point to one of the mountain's most popular hiking trails.

The current bus route costs 2800 return, almost a quarter of the price of the proposed train and following the exact same route.

The Subaru Line is quite a pleasant drive but it's basically just a road surrounded by trees with the odd brief glimpse of the mountain. It won't be an especially memorable train journey.

Are they planning to shut the road route down altogether? They surely can't as it will still be needed for all sorts of other reasons. And it's very nice to be able to take your own car up there outside of the climbing season.

The prefecture projects capital investment would total 148.6 billion yen, deeming it optimal for the prefectural government to construct the tracks while a private company operates the trains.

This will no doubt be run by the Fuji-Q group, who run the local private train line and own the Fuji-Q Higland amusement park / half the bloody town.

Co-incidentally the CEO of Fuji-Q is married to the local House of Representatives member. Hmmm. I wonder what they have to talk about over dinner.

This morning, I thought it was 3 million passengers, now it is hikers. Even a worst assumption with only hikers

And in 5, 10 years, less tourists might come to Japan once the boom is over. Should not be over optimistic

What’s with Japan and its craving to pave over nature?

No , No , No…….Fujisan is a sacred Japanese symbol……..It’s not like Jungfrau in Interlaken or tourist-destroyed Muchu-Pichu

In other words, the Yamanashi Nama Concrete Cooperative has noticed that the new Kiyosato Highway will be finished soon and even the prefectural government cannot begin to justify yet another road to nowhere.

the prefectural government to construct the tracks while a private company operates the trains

because no private company could secure a loan to fun such an obvious white elephant that is bound to soar over budget for questionable return. Presumably the constructor (the prefecture) would also be on the hook for upkeep of a railway, built on pumice, that is covered with snow and ice for four months of the year. Sounds expensive.

And let's not forget that trains cannot climb gradients of more than 4%, and the Subaru Line is a lot steeper than that, meaning they would have to be use cogwheels; which are slow and inefficient. So the new line would be no quicker and less convenient than the busses, but (as noted above) tickets would cost four times as much. Who would chose to do that? But if they are planning on replacing, rather than supplementing, the current road they will simply encourage tourists to visit the Shizuoka side of the mountain.

Another stroke of genius from the bureaucrats who put up a fence specifically to obscure a popular view of their biggest tourist draw.

Please, No !

I think this is not a bad idea as long as the execution is done properly. As a tourist, I rather pay-up a little and have a good experience not deal with overly paper work or tantrum of locals.

But the thing is about the saving the face. It seems Japanese government already acknowledge that they simply are falling behind of developed world. So they are gradually moving towards dual pricing system without letting citizens to feel it right away. So they keep bringing up over tourism or make a big drama out of one misbehaving tourists and use this as an excuse to roll out dual pricing. I wonder how long they are going to play this game until ordinary Japanese realize the brutal truth.