Police and firefighters are searching Mt. Fuji for a Chinese tourist in his 20s who set out alone from the Yoshida trail's fifth station without a tent or snow-mountain gear, after he stopped answering his phone around 11:30 a.m. on the day he began climbing.
The man arrived in Japan with a friend last week. He started up the mountain alone on the morning of the 8th, police said. The mountain was in its closed season, so the friend gave up on the climb.
The two stayed in touch by phone, exchanging videos and messages. Contact ended around 11:30 a.m. The man had no tent and none of the equipment needed for snow-mountain climbing.
The friend turned to acquaintances before dawn on the 9th, and they reported the climb to police. That is how the possible distress became known.
From the morning of the 10th, police, firefighters and a Yamanashi Prefectural disaster-response helicopter searched the area. They did not find him.
More than 30 centimeters of snow lie around the trail, and there is a risk of avalanches. The search is to resume once the weather improves.