Japan Golden Week crowds

Fujiyoshida canceled its 2026 cherry blossom festival to cut crowds around its best-known Mount Fuji viewpoint, but visitors kept coming anyway. (cbc.ca) The city said on February 3 that it would not hold the Arakurayama Sengen Park Sakura Festival this spring, after years of rising visitor pressure around Chureito Pagoda and nearby residential streets. Fujiyoshida’s tourism site says the festival usually draws about 200,000 people a year. (city.fujiyoshida.yamanashi.jp, fujiyoshida.net) City officials said peak bloom now brings more than 10,000 visitors a day, driven in part by social media posts and a weaker yen that helped fuel inbound travel to Japan. The city cited trespassing, people opening private doors to use toilets, littering and chronic traffic jams in its cancellation notice. (city.fujiyoshida.yamanashi.jp) The cancellation did not close the park. Fujiyoshida kept guards, traffic control, temporary parking and portable toilets in place from April 1 to April 17, with road restrictions running through April 19, because officials expected heavy arrivals even without an event. (fujiyoshida.net, fujiyoshida.net) The city also warned that the observation deck would run on timed entry during the blossom period and that waits of one to three hours were likely. It urged visitors to use public transit and stay out of nearby housing areas. (fujiyoshida.net) Associated Press reported that foreign tourists still packed the narrow streets leading to the park in early April, lining up for the panorama of Mount Fuji, cherry blossoms and the red pagoda. CBC reported the same pattern after the cancellation, with travelers still arriving for the viral view. (apnews.com, cbc.ca) Fujiyoshida is not dealing with a single photo spot anymore. The city’s broader Mount Fuji image economy includes Arakurayama Sengen Park and Honcho Street, where tourists have also gathered for street-level shots of the mountain behind shops and traffic. (city.fujiyoshida.yamanashi.jp, apnews.com) Japan has been tightening local crowd controls at other Mount Fuji hotspots too. In 2024, a nearby town put up a barrier at a Lawson convenience store photo spot after repeated complaints about jaywalking, littering and unsafe roadside behavior by visitors seeking the same mountain backdrop. (apnews.com) In Fujiyoshida, the immediate result was narrower than the city had hoped: the festival disappeared, but the line for the view remained. (cbc.ca, fujiyoshida.net)