Tourists are already poking holes in the Mount Fuji barrier built by a small town to stop overcrowding in the neighborhood

03.06.2024 - 21:07 / insider.com

It's been about a week since a Japanese resort town erected an eight-foot-tall mesh to block a scenic view of Mount Fuji that had tourists crowding nearby businesses.

But Fujikawaguchiko authorities are already finding holes being poked in the black netting, one town official told Agence France-Presse on Tuesday.

"It's about manners. It's a shame," said the unnamed official. He added that about 10 finger-sized holes have been found so far.

He said a security guard is stationed at the curtain between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. and that the holes must have been created when the mesh wasn't manned, per AFP.

Still, the official told the outlet that the barrier is, for the most part, fulfilling its role in dispersing photo-hungry tourists.

Authorities put up the netting, which spans about 65 feet, last week as local residents and businesses complained of misbehaving tourists flocking to a Lawson convenience store.

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Mount Fuji's snow-capped peak looms over the store's roof when seen from across the street — a view that's been made famous on social media.

But people living and working in Fujikawaguchiko said the visitors often litter, jaywalk, obstruct traffic, and trespass in pursuit of the perfect shot.

A nearby dental clinic released a statement on May 1 saying that tourists would park in spaces meant for patients, eat and smoke under people's homes, and shout at staff when asked to move.

The clinic said the curtain would obscure its entrance from the road and block an important car exit but added that the mesh was an "unavoidable measure" to deal with the tourist disruption.

"The lives of local residents have been disrupted," a town official told Japanese newspaper the Mainichi. "We've been pushed beyond our limit by the increase in foreign tourists over the past few months."

The influx of tourists at Fujikawaguchiko underscores a fierce resurgence in foreign visitor arrivals in Japan after the COVID-19 pandemic. Foreigners made about 25 million visits to the country in 2023 after Japan saw just 3.8 million visits the year before, per government statistics.

That's still lower than Japan's record high of 31 million arrivals in 2019. But arrivals in January, February, and March this year have jumped about 70 to 88% compared to the same periods in 2023 — putting the country on pace to match its pre-pandemic totals.

Visitors spent about $11.2 billion in those three months, and Japan's national government hopes to eventually bolster tourism arrivals to 60 million per year by 2030.