Ultimately, Ballinger says the onus may still fall to climbers to ensure their own safety, a risky proposition on one of the most dangerous ascents in the world. Bianca Nobilo, CNN.
The risk of altitude sickness and hypothermia has been increased by a trend called bullet climbing, where hikers begin their ascent at night, pushing on until dawn, according to the Yamanashi tourism board.
The country has passed through such moods before, during the trauma of Vietnam in the 1970s, for example, and then again in the 1980s during Japan's breakneck ascent as an industrial power.