Mt. Fuji draws fewer summer tourists due to car restrictions

Summer climbers to Mt. Fuji during July 1 to Aug. 31 this year declined 2.5 percent from a year earlier to 310,721, due to tighter restrictions on car use, local media reported Wednesday.

Initial expectation showed there would be a sharp increase following the UNESCO World Heritage site listing. However that is not what happened.

The Japanese Environment Ministry earlier this year extended a period banning private cars in roads leading to the entry points of three of the four trails, resulting in drops in climbers through these routes.

According to the infrared counter near the mountain's 8th station for each trails, the Yoshida route was most popular, attracting 179,720 people but declining 5.3 percent due to the car ban.

The three routes on the Shizuoka Prefecture side -- Fujinomiya, Subashiri, and Gotemba -- each attracted 76,784, 36,508 and 17,709 people respectively, said the ministry.

The country's highest peak saw a record number of climbers in 2010 with 320,975 people after the ministry began counting climbers in 2005.

The ministry also said the drop in climbers apparently stemmed from calls on people to refrain from climbing to the 3,776-meter summit without taking enough sleep or rest, a practice deemed conducive to causing altitude sickness.