Father reprimanded after leaving 7-year-old alone on Mount Fuji
A 48-year-old man was warned by police for abandoning his 7-year-old son on Mount Fuji’s Fujinomiya Trail while continuing the ascent with his older child.
A man from Nagoya, 48, left his 7-year-old son unattended at the sixth station of Mount Fuji’s Fujinomiya Trail on Aug. 20 and kept climbing with his older son, who is about 12 or 13. The younger child was found alone on a bench by a mountain-hut worker at around 7:40 a.m., taken inside the hut and reported to police. By the time officers arrived, the father had reached near the eighth station and was ordered to return for his son.
The sixth station sits roughly 2,500 metres (8,000 feet) above sea level, and the ascent from there to the summit and back typically takes about 7.5 hours. Authorities estimated the boy may have been left alone for several hours, possibly from around 4:30 a.m. when the father continued upward. Rain and fog were present when the child was discovered, raising safety concerns on the mountain.
Police reprimanded the father, stating that leaving a child behind is unacceptable regardless of the climb’s difficulty. The father told officers, > "I made a rash decision, and I deeply regret it."
Officials urged hikers to stay together and adjust their pace to accommodate the least-able participant, noting that no formal charges had been announced at the time.