Takuya Ikeda News Today

A Ground Self-Defense Force instructor was killed by a fragment from an exploding grenade during a drill in Yamanashi Prefecture on May 30, GSDF officials said.

KOFU, Yamanashi Prefecture--To ease congestion and improve safety, climbers on Mount Fuji will be asked to stop and wait whenever the trail becomes too crowded, which increases the risk of injury from tumbles and falling rocks. 

FUJI-YOSHIDA, Yamanashi Prefecture--Local authorities have failed to take effective measures to curb the hordes of hikers climbing Mount Fuji, which was named a World Heritage site a decade ago, despite a formal recommendation from UNESCO advisers.

KOFU--Police arrested a former town official from Nagano Prefecture on suspicion of sending threatening letters and metal blades to the Yamanashi Prefecture governor in protest of his stay-at-home request for those unvaccinated against COVID-19.

KOFU--Yamanashi prefectural police said DNA tests on a bone fragment found in a mountainous area of Doshi here showed beyond doubt that a 7-year-old schoolgirl who went missing in 2019 on a family camping trip is dead.

Human bones and a pair of childrens shoes have been discovered in a mountain forest in Doshi, Yamanashi Prefecture, where a young girl went missing from a nearby campsite in 2019 and was never found, despite an extensive search.

Ibaraki Prefecture’s success from promoting its beauty and charms was short-lived. The prefecture returned to its familiar bottom-basement ranking in a survey this year of “attractive prefectures.”