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Kusatsu's Volcano Alert Dropped. The Road Is Still Closed.

Last verified: 2026-08-03 6 min read By Wheels Down Japan editorial Reviewed: Wheels Down Japan editorial

If you are planning the drive over the mountains from Kusatsu towards Manza and Shiga Kōgen, there is a piece of news that reads like good news and is not yet usable as such.

What actually happened

On 15 May 2026, the Japan Meteorological Agency lowered the eruption alert for Kusatsu-Shirane from Level 2 (restrictions around the crater) to Level 1 (be aware this is an active volcano).

Ordinarily that would shrink the town’s exclusion zone from a 1 km radius to 500 m.

It did not, and the town said so the same day. After consulting Gunma Prefecture, Kusatsu decided to keep the wider restriction provisionally in place, and gave its reasons plainly: snow conditions, the state of guardrails and other barriers, and the summit car park and toilets all need safety work before the smaller zone can be managed properly.

So the practical position, as published by the town:

National Route 292 remains closed between the Sesshō gate and the Manza junction gate, provisionally, until that work is done.

The town has said it will announce the reopening separately when it happens.

Why this distinction is worth carrying

A volcanic alert level is a scientific assessment of the mountain. A road closure is an administrative decision about whether the infrastructure around it can be operated safely for the public.

They usually move together, which is why people treat them as the same fact. Here they came apart, and the gap has now lasted months.

That matters beyond Kusatsu. When you read that an alert level has been lowered at any Japanese volcano — Aso, Sakurajima, Hakone — that headline does not tell you whether roads, ropeways, trails or car parks have reopened. Those are announced separately, by different bodies, on their own timetables. The alert level is the beginning of the question, not the answer.

Check the municipality, not just the news.

The other closure, and this one is central

Separately, Kusatsu is rebuilding the street through the middle of town.

The Chūō Yubatake-dōri road works close the street from 24 August to 18 September 2026, and the terms are unusual enough to read carefully:

  • Vehicles under 2 m wide: fully closed 08:00 to 18:00 on weekdays, so weekends are unaffected for them.
  • Vehicles over 2 m wide: closed all day, every day, for the whole period.

A microbus service runs during the works. The town publishes the detail as PDFs.

The Yubatake is the hot-spring field at the centre of Kusatsu and the reason most visitors come. Late August into September is not a quiet season. If you are arriving by car, by rental van, or on a coach — that second line is the one to note, because a vehicle over 2 m wide has no weekday-evening workaround.

Arriving by bus or on foot, the works are an inconvenience rather than a barrier.

One more the town has posted

Kusatsu’s notice board also carries a bear-sighting warning, dated 28 July 2026. This is normal for mountain Gunma in summer and autumn rather than an emergency, but it is a live notice on the town’s own page, and it is worth knowing before an evening walk on the wooded edges of town.

The baths and the yumomi show

This section previously carried unconfirmed figures, because the operators’ sites would not render for us. They render now, and one of the numbers we were repeating was wrong. Everything below was read on the operators’ own pages on 3 August 2026.

Netsu-no-Yu, the yumomi and dance show. Six performances a day, in two blocks: 9:30, 10:00 and 10:30 in the morning; 15:30, 16:00 and 16:30 in the afternoon. Admission is ¥700 for adults and ¥350 for primary-school children, tax included.

The detail that decides whether you make it: tickets go on sale thirty minutes before each performance, not earlier in the day. You cannot secure the 15:30 show at breakfast.

The gap between the two blocks is filled, and almost nobody mentions it. Between 11:30 and 12:50 the same hall runs a hands-on yumomi experience — you do the paddling yourself — at ¥300 for primary-school age and up. If your day lands in the middle, that is the version of Netsu-no-Yu available to you, and it is cheaper than watching.

Sainokawara open-air bath. 7:00 to 20:00 from 1 April to 30 November, 9:00 to 20:00 from 1 December to 31 March, last entry 19:30 in both seasons. ¥800 for adults, ¥400 for children. Holders of a disability handbook, Mirairo ID or equivalent certificate pay half — the operator specifies that photocopies are not accepted.

Two things published on the operator’s own notice board that no English page carries:

  • On the second Wednesday of every month it closes at 17:00, last entry 16:30, for tank cleaning. Three hours early, on a date you can predict, announced on 26 July 2026.
  • On Fridays from 17:30 to 20:00 the men’s open-air bath becomes mixed-gender, with the bath lit, except on specified days. Worth knowing before you walk in rather than after.

Unlike Jigokudani, Sainokawara takes QR payments — PayPay and AEON Pay — alongside cards and transit IC. Parking is free at the 300-space Tenguyama No. 1 car park.

One of the three baths is partly shut this summer. Otaki-no-Yu is under renovation from 17 August to 17 September 2026, with the men’s awase-yu and men’s open-air bath closed. The operator is discounting men’s adult admission from ¥1,200 to ¥1,000 for the duration, and notes the dates may move with the work.

How to decide

  1. Do not plan the Route 292 mountain crossing until the town announces the reopening.
  2. Read the alert level and the road status as two separate facts. They are decided by different bodies.
  3. Arriving by car between 24 August and 18 September? Check the Yubatake street closure, and check your vehicle width against the 2 m line.
  4. Check the town’s notice board, not only tourism pages, before you travel. It is where the closures appear first.

Official sources

Restrictions change, and the whole point of this article is that they change on their own schedule. The closures, the alert level and the road status were read from Kusatsu Town’s own pages on 2 August 2026. The bath, show and renovation figures were read on the operators’ own pages on 3 August 2026 — an earlier version of this article carried the show price as ¥600 from secondary sources, labelled as unconfirmed; at source it is ¥700, which is why it was labelled. Check the town’s notice board and the operators’ pages for the current position before you travel.

Spotted an error? Email [email protected].

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