Wheels Down Japan
LANGUAGE English
English日本語简体中文

Climbing Mt Fuji in 2026: Two Systems, Four Trails

Last verified: 2026-08-05 6 min read By Wheels Down Japan editorial Reviewed: Wheels Down Japan editorial

Mt Fuji has four climbing trails, and they are not governed by one authority. The Yoshida trail is Yamanashi Prefecture. Fujinomiya, Gotemba and Subashiri are Shizuoka Prefecture. Each has written its own rules, and they are genuinely different — different procedures, different things that stop you at the gate.

Most English writing about climbing Fuji describes one of these systems and leaves you to assume it covers the mountain. It does not.

Both charge the same headline figure — ¥4,000 per person, per climb — which is probably why the two get conflated. The money is where the similarity ends.

The Yoshida trail (Yamanashi)

This is the busiest route, the one most day-climbers and most tours use, and the one reached from the Fuji Subaru Line 5th Station.

Read from Yamanashi Prefecture’s own page on 5 August 2026:

  • Season: 1 July to 10 September, and the prefecture notes the start can be delayed by weather or lingering snow.
  • Toll: ¥4,000 per person per climb.
  • The gate is closed 14:00 to 03:00 — except for people holding a mountain hut booking.
  • A cap of 4,000 climbers per day, again excluding hut guests.
  • An equipment check at the 5th station. This is the one to take seriously.

The equipment check can turn you around

Yamanashi states it plainly: at the 5th station your gear is inspected, and only people carrying all of the required items may pass the gate. The named items are cold-weather clothing, separate top-and-bottom rain gear, and footwear suitable for mountain walking.

“Separate top and bottom” rules out a poncho, which is what a lot of people arrive with. This is a check you can fail after travelling all the way to the 5th station, and the rule is not discretionary.

Advance booking is recommended but same-day passage is possible, subject to the daily cap. One small incentive for booking ahead: the commemorative wooden tag is given to advance bookers only, while stocks last.

Yamanashi also publishes the standard timings — roughly six hours up, four hours down, an hour of rest, about eleven hours in total — and warns you to work backwards from the Subaru Line’s own downhill gate closing time and the last bus down, not just from daylight.

The Shizuoka trails (Fujinomiya, Gotemba, Subashiri)

Shizuoka’s system is legal rather than physical: its rules come from the prefecture’s Mt Fuji Climbing Ordinance and its fee ordinance. Read from Shizuoka Prefecture’s own page on 5 August 2026, three conditions are obligatory for anyone entering above the prefecture’s defined reference point:

  1. Complete the e-learning course on conservation and safety rules. This is done inside the prefecture’s registration system, and the entry permit is not issued until you have finished it.
  2. Entering between 14:00 and 03:00 requires a mountain hut booking, which is checked at the 5th station of each trail.
  3. Pay the ¥4,000 entry fee.

You register in advance through the prefecture’s system and receive an entry permit, which you must show at the 5th station. Registration for the 2026 season opened on 8 May 2026.

If you do not have a smartphone

Shizuoka allows the whole procedure to be completed on site at the 5th station — the e-learning, the paperwork and the payment. The prefecture’s own estimate is about 30 minutes, and it warns that queues form in peak season.

If that is your plan, download and fill in the forms first. The prefecture publishes a submission checklist, a declaration-and-pledge form, and a climber information sheet, with English, Korean and both Chinese versions available. Groups of eleven or more need a separate name list.

Payment on site is accepted in cash or by cashless methods.

Exemptions exist, and they need advance application

The fee can be waived for disabled climbers and their carers, for school activities that form part of a curriculum, and for kindergarten nature-observation outings. These require applying in advance, not asking at the gate.

What is the same on both sides

The night window. Neither prefecture wants you climbing through the night without a bed booked. Yamanashi shuts the gate from 14:00 to 03:00 unless you have a hut reservation; Shizuoka requires a hut booking to enter in exactly the same window. The official climbing site puts it in one line: do not climb at night without staying in a mountain hut.

The reasoning published by Yamanashi is worth reading rather than skipping. Climbing straight through — what the Japanese call dangan tozan, “bullet climbing” — raises the risk of altitude sickness through sleep deprivation, of hypothermia at a summit that drops below freezing even in summer, of congestion near the top, and of falls and rockfall in the dark.

The volcano. Mt Fuji is an active volcano and the current eruption alert is Level 1, the lowest. The official site still tells climbers to carry a helmet — and states a rule that surprises people: even at Level 1, if an emergency volcanic commentary is issued, climbers above the 5th station must begin descending. That is not a hypothetical procedure buried in a document; it is on the front page of the official climbing site.

Multilingual documents. Both prefectures publish the rules in several languages — Yamanashi in English, both Chinese scripts and French; Shizuoka in English, both Chinese scripts, Korean, Thai, Indonesian and Vietnamese. Read the one for your trail rather than a summary, including this one.

How to decide

  1. Pick your trail first, then read that trail’s rules. The four are not interchangeable and neither are the procedures.
  2. Yoshida? Budget ¥4,000, book ahead if you can, and check your rain gear is a separate jacket and trousers. A poncho will not clear the gate.
  3. Fujinomiya, Gotemba or Subashiri? Budget ¥4,000 and complete the e-learning before you travel. Without the permit you are not starting.
  4. Want to see sunrise from the summit? Book a mountain hut. On both sides that is what makes a night start legal.
  5. No smartphone, Shizuoka side? Fill in the forms at home and allow an extra half hour at the 5th station, more at busy times.
  6. Check the season dates before booking flights. The mountain opens in early July and closes on 10 September, and the opening can slip on snow.

Official sources

Every figure, time and rule above was read from the two prefectures’ own pages and the official climbing site on 5 August 2026. Yamanashi’s page was last updated on 27 April 2026 and Shizuoka’s on 30 June 2026. Rules are set by the prefectures and have changed in each of the last several seasons; the eruption alert level in particular can change at any time. Check both the trail you have chosen and the current alert level before you travel.

Spotted an error? Email [email protected].

← All articles