Losing its way

Editor's note: In this weekly feature China Daily gives voice to Asia and its people. The stories presented come mainly from the Asia News Network (ANN), of which China Daily is among its 20 leading titles.

With hiking growing in popularity, maintaining mountain trails has become a pressing challenge. While some routes have attracted volunteers, there are still many trails that are not well maintained. These trails risk falling into disrepair, which could cause accidents.

There has been a concerning rise in the number of trail accidents. In 2023, there were 3,568 accidents in the mountains, according to a report from Japan's National Police Agency. "Getting lost" accounted for 34 percent of accidents, and "slipping and falling" and "falling down" each accounted for 17 percent.

Of the 1,127 trails that run through Japan's 34 national parks, nearly half of them have no one in charge of maintenance and preservation, according to a report released in December 2023 by the Environment Ministry of Japan.

This is due to concerns about having to assume responsibility if there is an accident, also because of a lack of funds, officials said.

Even some trails with people maintaining them are not repaired in a timely manner, and 300 trails were found to have "some" or "many issues".

Members of mountaineering groups and staff at mountain lodges, who have been responsible for trail maintenance, are aging in many regions, and some are no longer able to take good care of the trails, according to a group that studies the management of mountain trails.

"As the number of elderly climbers increases and the mountain trails continue to deteriorate, the number of lost climbers will rise, and the risk of slips and falls will also increase," said Kenji Kubota, member of a trail study group of Japan.

Taking effort

Local governments and private organizations are taking action to maintain a safe climbing environment.

At Mount Fuji, the Yamanashi government started asking climbers to pay 2,000 Japanese yen ($13.39) as toll last summer in addition to a voluntary 1,000 yen as conservation fee. The toll will be used for trail maintenance and other purposes. The Shizuoka government is also considering collecting a similar toll from this summer.