Japan's Yamanashi prefecture is considering raising climbing fees for Mount Fuji

Yamanashi Prefecture, located in the Tokyo metropolitan area, is known as the home of Mount Fuji. The Yamanashi prefectural government plans to raise the entrance fee for climbers of Mount Fuji to between 3,000 yen and 5,000 yen, a Yamanashi prefecture source revealed Monday.

The current entrance fee is 2,000 yen.

Yamanashi Prefecture plans to merge the fee with a voluntary cooperative childcare fee, the Japan Times reported. Currently, the fee for cooperative care at Mount Fuji is 1,000 yen per person. Local communities say the voluntary fees are complicated and confusing.

The Yamanashi prefectural government has shown local people three plans to raise the entrance fee to the mountain, at 3,000 yen, 4,000 yen or 5,000 yen per person.

The Shizuoka prefecture government, which straddles Yamanashi and Shizuoka prefectures, is also considering charging a 3,000-5,000 yen entry fee for each climber from next summer, while abolishing the existing voluntary co-op childcare fee.

The entrance fee will be used for security guards and other purposes.

During the summer climbing season (July 1 to September 10), about 204,000 people climbed Mount Fuji in Yamanashi and Shizuoka prefectures, about 92 percent of the same period last year. After Yamanashi Prefecture imposed restrictions, the number of mountain climbers at night dropped sharply.