Photo/Illutration Climbers show their wristbands to pass through the gate at the fifth station on Mount Fuji on July 1. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

FUJI-YOSHIDA, Yamanashi Prefecture--The number of people attempting to “bullet climb” Mount Fuji overnight has dropped by around 80 percent on the Yoshida trail here, according to a city government survey.

City officials attribute this significant reduction to the success of new climbing regulations implemented this season.

The prefectural government set up a gate at the trail’s fifth station, halfway to the summit, that restricts entry to the mountain from 4 p.m. to 3 a.m. for climbers who have not made reservations to stay overnight in mountain huts.

The goal was to reduce the dangerous practice of bullet climbing in which hikers attempt to ascend the mountain at night to reach the summit before sunrise and descend without staying in huts.

These rapid ascents had led to cases of altitude sickness and contributed to overcrowding near the summit.

The city government, which counts climbers at the sixth station, reported 2,579 climbers from 5 p.m. to 3 a.m. in July, down roughly 76 percent from 10,757 in the same month last year. This time period is heavily affected by the gate closure.

“The regulations are having effective results,” a city official said.

In July, 55,185 climbers passed through the sixth station, down about 16 percent from the 66,012 in the same month last year.

The gate at the fifth station will close before 4 p.m. if the number of climbers there reaches 4,000 that day. However, this threshold was not exceeded on any day in July.

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