Mount Fuji is closed. The 2026 climbing season ended on 10 September, at 17:00 on three of the four trails, and the official climbing site now lists every summit route as shut for the winter: the Yoshida, Subashiri and Gotemba trails above the fifth station, the Fujinomiya trail above the sixth, and the footpath around the crater rim. The next season is described only as “early July to early September”, with the formal dates to be announced before the season starts.
That vagueness matters, because in 2026 the four trails did not open on the same day. They opened on two dates nine days apart, and the crater rim footpath opened later than two of them.
Two trails opened on 1 July in 2026 and two opened on 10 July
The council that runs the official climbing site publishes a facility table for each route. Read against each other, the four ascent routes split into two groups, and all four closed on the same afternoon. The crater rim loop is listed separately and is added as a fifth row below.
| Route | Section | 2026 opening | 2026 closing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yoshida | Above the fifth station | 1 July | 10 September |
| Subashiri | Above the fifth station | 1 July, 09:00 | 10 September, 17:00 |
| Fujinomiya | Above the sixth station | 10 July, 09:00 | 10 September, 17:00 |
| Gotemba | Above the fifth station | 10 July, 09:00 | 10 September, 17:00 |
| Crater rim footpath | Ohachimeguri loop | 10 July | 10 September |
The gap is not an administrative detail. A climber who books the Fujinomiya route for the first week of July arrives at a trailhead that is still closed above the sixth station, while the Yoshida and Subashiri trails have already been open for nine days, by my own count of the two printed dates. The Fujinomiya fifth-to-sixth station section is a separate case again: it opened at 09:00 on 23 June and stays open until early November, so the lower stretch of that route is walkable for months after the summit is sealed.
One day of asymmetry sits at the end as well. On 11 September the descending trail on the Yoshida route below the eighth station stayed open until noon, and the seventh-station toilet on that descent stayed open to the same deadline. None of the other three route tables carries an entry that runs to 11 September.
Every route charges 4,000 yen, and the gate shuts at 2 p.m.
The site prints three rules under the heading of common rules for all trails. The user fee is 4,000 yen. Entry to the mountain is registered through a web system, which the page is careful to say is not a mountain hut booking. And entry is barred between 2 p.m. and 3 a.m. the following morning, with one exemption: people staying at a mountain hut.
That 13-hour window decides the shape of the climb. An afternoon start followed by a night in a hut and a dawn walk to the crater is permitted, because hut guests are the stated exemption. Starting in the afternoon and walking straight through the night without a hut booking is not: the gate has to be passed before 14:00.
Payment is not always at the gate. On the Yoshida route the fee can be paid in advance through Yamanashi Prefecture’s reservation system, and both prefectures posted refund notices in September 2026. The Shizuoka notice, dated 18 September, concerns hiking fee refunds paid through that prefecture’s app and is marked as of 9 September. The Yamanashi notice, dated 8 September, concerns advance payments made through the Yoshida Trail reservation system for 9 and 10 September. Both notices give a reason, as read on 23 September 2026. The Shizuoka notice records that the Mt. Fuji Skyline was closed under rainfall restrictions on 9 September and that buses to the fifth station stopped for strong wind, heavy rain and landslides. The Yamanashi notice records that the Fuji Subaru Line had been shut to traffic since 20:50 on 8 September by heavy rain.
Private cars are barred from three of the four approach roads
Three of the four approach roads in the tables are shut to private vehicles across the climbing period, and the three restrictions do not run to the same clock.
- Fuji Subaru Line (to the Yoshida fifth station): private vehicles restricted from 18:00 on 3 July to 18:00 on 10 September.
- Mt. Fuji Skyline (to the Fujinomiya fifth station): private vehicles restricted from 09:00 on 10 July to 18:00 on 10 September.
- Fuji-azami Line (to the Subashiri fifth station): private vehicles restricted from 09:00 on 1 July to 18:00 on 10 September.
- Prefectural Road Fuji Park Tarobo Line (to the Gotemba new fifth station): no private vehicle restriction is listed.
The Mizugatsuka parking lot, the transfer point for the Fujinomiya side, is open from 05:00 to 13:00 during the opening period and, the table states, for people who have pre-registered online only. The 13:00 cut-off lands an hour before the 14:00 entry ban, which is consistent rather than coincidental.
The roads themselves outlast the trails. Mt. Fuji Skyline runs from 24 April to early November, with night closures from 17:00 to 08:00 until mid-May, and the Tarobo Line runs from 24 April to mid-November. Driving to a fifth station in October is possible; walking above it is not.
The summit facilities keep shorter hours than the trail that reaches them
Reaching the crater before dawn does not mean everything at the top is open. The public toilet on the Fujinomiya side of the summit runs from 04:00 to 16:00 and asks a 300 yen tip, with PayPay accepted. On the Yoshida and Subashiri side the summit toilet is available while the mountaintop shop is open, at the same 300 yen. The summit post office, the site says, is typically open from the start of the mountain season until the end of August. Counted against the Yoshida route’s own dates, that is 1 July to 31 August inside a season that ran to 10 September, so the last ten days of the climbing period fall outside it. The arithmetic is mine; the site prints only the two date ranges.
Medical cover does not track the trail calendar either. The first-aid centre at the Fujinomiya eighth station ran from 17 July to 10:00 on 4 September in 2026, flagged on the table as a shortened opening period. The Gotemba route lists no first-aid centre at all. On the Yoshida route the fifth-station centre ran 07:00 to 19:00 and the eighth-station centre closed on 7 September, with a temporary closure on 2 September.
Lower down it depends which toilet. The public toilets at the Yoshida and Gotemba fifth stations are listed as open 24 hours and free; the tip is 200 yen at the Fujinomiya and Subashiri fifth stations, and 200 to 300 yen at the Yoshida mountain huts. The official kit list asks for plenty of cash and 100 yen coins for exactly this reason.
The English page prints four bare numbers where the Japanese prints era years
The rules-and-manners section says Mount Fuji and most of its lower slopes are designated as a national park, a World Cultural Heritage property, a Special Place of Scenic Beauty and a Historic Site. The English version renders the four designations with bracketed numbers — 11, 25, 27 and 23 — and nothing else. The Japanese version of the same page shows what those numbers are: Japanese era years. Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park dates from Showa 11, World Cultural Heritage from Heisei 25, Special Place of Scenic Beauty from Showa 27 and Historic Site from Heisei 23 — 1936, 2013, 1952 and 2011 in the Western calendar.
Read only in English, that bracketed 25 beside World Cultural Heritage looks like a count of sites. It is a year. Both pages were live on 23 September 2026 and neither explains the other.
The designations carry enforceable rules. Everything above the fifth station is a Special Protection Zone of the national park, and under Article 21(3) of the Natural Parks Act and the Act on Protection of Cultural Properties the page lists what is prohibited for climbers: taking or damaging plants and animals, leaving the marked trail, removing lava or stones including small pebbles, graffiti on buildings or rock, pitching a tent, lighting a fire, and letting animals run loose. Penalties listed include imprisonment or a fine.
Temperature falls about 0.6 degrees for every 100 metres of the 3,776
The summit is 3,776 metres, and the climb from any trailhead covers, in the site’s own words, well over 1,000 metres of elevation gain. The same page’s weather section gives two working figures: about 0.6 degrees Celsius of cooling for every 100 metres of altitude, and about 1.0 degree of apparent cooling for every 1 metre per second of wind speed.
Applied to the site’s own statement that the climb covers well over 1,000 metres of gain, the first figure alone accounts for at least 6 degrees between trailhead and summit, and that is before any wind. The multiplication is mine; the page prints the rate and the elevation gain separately. The page states plainly that even in summer the summit can fall to near zero before sunrise, and that the longer you wait for the sunrise, the higher the risk of hypothermia. Its essential kit list is written to match: hiking boots with a stiff sole, separate rain jacket and trousers, fleece, down jacket, gloves and a neck warmer, a headlamp with spare batteries, and one to two litres of water.
Mount Fuji is described on the same page as an isolated peak where winds from Suruga Bay, Sagami Bay and the north meet, producing unstable air at altitude. That is the setting for a season that ran 72 days on the Yoshida route and 63 days on the Fujinomiya route in 2026, counting inclusively from the printed dates.
Sources Checked
Mt. Fuji Climbing Official Website (Mt. Fuji Climbing Promotion Council) — top page and off-season notice
Confirmed that the 2026 season has ended, that the Yoshida, Subashiri and Gotemba trails above the fifth station, the Fujinomiya trail above the sixth station and the crater rim footpath are all closed for winter, and that two refund notices were posted, one dated 18 September for the Shizuoka app and one dated 8 September for Yoshida Trail advance payments covering 9 and 10 September 2026.
https://www.fujisan-climb.jp/en/
Mt. Fuji Climbing Official Website — facility operating periods for 2026
Confirmed the Yoshida and Subashiri opening date of 1 July and closing of 10 September, the Fujinomiya and Gotemba opening of 10 July at 09:00 and closing at 17:00 on 10 September, the crater rim footpath period of 10 July to 10 September, the Fujinomiya fifth-to-sixth station section from 09:00 on 23 June to early November, the 11 September noon deadline on the Yoshida descending trail below the eighth station, the Fuji Subaru Line restriction from 18:00 on 3 July to 18:00 on 10 September, the Mt. Fuji Skyline restriction from 09:00 on 10 July to 18:00 on 10 September, the absence of a restriction on the Tarobo Line, the Mizugatsuka parking hours of 05:00 to 13:00 for pre-registered users, the summit toilet hours of 04:00 to 16:00 with a 300 yen tip and PayPay, the 300 yen tip on the Yoshida and Subashiri side, the summit post office being open typically until the end of August, the Fujinomiya eighth-station first-aid period of 17 July to 10:00 on 4 September marked as shortened, the absence of a first-aid centre on the Gotemba route, the Yoshida fifth-station first-aid hours of 07:00 to 19:00, the Yoshida eighth-station closure on 7 September with a temporary closure on 2 September, and the 200 yen and 200 to 300 yen toilet tips.
https://www.fujisan-climb.jp/en/season/
Mt. Fuji Climbing Official Website — notice on refunds for the Shizuoka side, 18 September 2026
Confirmed that the refund covers hiking fees paid through the prefecture’s app, that it is marked as of 9 September, and that the stated reason is the closure of the Mt. Fuji Skyline under rainfall restrictions together with the suspension of buses to the fifth station for strong wind, heavy rain and landslides.
https://www.fujisan-climb.jp/en/info/2918/
Mt. Fuji Climbing Official Website — notice on refunds for Yoshida Trail advance payments, 8 September 2026
Confirmed that the refund covers advance payments made through the Yoshida Trail reservation system for 9 and 10 September 2026, and that the stated reason is the closure of the Fuji Subaru Line to traffic from 20:50 on 8 September because of heavy rain.
https://www.fujisan-climb.jp/en/info/2890/
Mt. Fuji Climbing Official Website — things you must know before climbing (English)
Confirmed the common rules of a 4,000 yen user fee, web registration that is not a hut booking, and an entry ban from 2 p.m. to 3 a.m. excluding those staying at mountain huts; that the next season is stated only as early July to early September; the summit elevation of 3,776 metres and elevation gain of well over 1,000 metres; the lapse rate of about 0.6 degrees per 100 metres and wind chill of about 1.0 degree per 1 metre per second; the near-zero summit temperature before sunrise; the essential equipment list; the four designations printed as bare bracketed numbers, 11, 25, 27 and 23, with nothing else beside them; the Special Protection Zone above the fifth station; and the prohibited acts listed under Article 21(3) of the Natural Parks Act and the Act on Protection of Cultural Properties.
https://www.fujisan-climb.jp/en/things-to-know-before-climbing
Mt. Fuji Climbing Official Website — things you must know before climbing (Japanese)
Confirmed that the same four designations are written on the Japanese version as Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park in Showa 11, World Cultural Heritage in Heisei 25, Special Place of Scenic Beauty in Showa 27 and Historic Site in Heisei 23.
https://www.fujisan-climb.jp/things-to-know-before-climbing
Last updated: September 2026
