Mount Fuji drill tests evacuation options for foreign tourists
A tabletop exercise considered how to move approximately 2,000 stranded international visitors, including by bus and sightseeing boat.
Around 150 participants examined ways to evacuate foreign tourists during a Mount Fuji volcanic emergency in a tabletop exercise in Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture. Representatives of local governments, national ministries, transport companies, airlines and foreign embassies took part.
The scenario placed approximately 2,000 international visitors near Kawaguchiko Station, unable to leave on a busy Saturday afternoon in July. It assumed the Meteorological Agency had increased Mount Fuji’s alert to Level 3 on a scale of five, limiting mountain access and prompting climbers and tourists to leave.
Participants considered using buses and sightseeing boats to move visitors, followed by assistance reaching airports and returning home. They also examined how to keep transport hubs from becoming overwhelmed as residents and foreign tourists sought to evacuate at the same time.
Officials said a sightseeing boat could take approximately 150 passengers across the nearby lake in around 15 minutes, offering a possible alternative to congested roads. Internal affairs ministry officials suggested VoiceTra, a free app supporting 33 languages, to help overcome language barriers. Its reliance on cloud services raised concerns about whether it would work if communications infrastructure failed.
The group also discussed embassy coordination. After the exercise, its chairman, geoscientist Toshitsugu Fujii, called for a larger national government role, saying individual municipalities and prefectures could not resolve the challenges of evacuating large numbers of foreign visitors alone.
The Yamanashi Prefectural Government plans to gather the problems identified in the drill and consider incorporating the findings into its disaster prevention plans.
