Mount Fuji festival canceled

Fujiyoshida has canceled its 2026 cherry blossom festival at Arakurayama Sengen Park after city officials said crowds around its Mount Fuji photo spot had become unmanageable. (city.fujiyoshida.yamanashi.jp) The city announced the decision on February 3, 2026, ending the spring event for the coming bloom season at the park known for views of Chureito Pagoda, cherry blossoms and Mount Fuji. Officials said the festival had drawn about 200,000 visitors a year. (city.fujiyoshida.yamanashi.jp) In its statement, Fujiyoshida said peak bloom now brings more than 10,000 visitors a day and pushes the area beyond its capacity. The city said traffic jams had become chronic and the observation deck often had waits of one to three hours. (city.fujiyoshida.yamanashi.jp) Officials tied the cancellation to resident complaints, not to weather or park maintenance. The city listed trespassing on private property, people opening private homes to use toilets, littering, public urination in residential yards and crowding on school walking routes among the problems it had documented. (city.fujiyoshida.yamanashi.jp) The park is still open during blossom season, but the city has stripped away the festival label and kept crowd-control measures in place. Fujiyoshida said guards, traffic control, temporary parking and portable toilets would continue from April 1 to April 17, 2026, with traffic restrictions through April 19. (fujiyoshida.net) The city is also warning visitors that the neighborhood will remain heavily congested even without an official event. It asked people to use public transportation, avoid entering residential areas and follow rules against unauthorized photography near homes. (fujiyoshida.net) Fujiyoshida had already been tightening controls before this year. Its official English tourism page for 2025 said roads around Arakurayama Sengen Park and the adjacent parking area were closed to tourist traffic during the festival, with shuttle buses and extra parking set up to handle demand. (city.fujiyoshida.yamanashi.jp) The crackdown fits a broader pattern around Mount Fuji, where local authorities have been trying to contain crowding at famous photo points. The Associated Press reported this week that Fujiyoshida’s pagoda-and-blossom vista went viral online and turned a quiet town into a spring bottleneck for international visitors. (apnews.com) Mayor Shigeru Horiuchi said the city chose residents over promotion after 10 years of running the event. In the city’s release, he said Fujiyoshida would now try to build a tourism system that lets visitors and local life coexist. (city.fujiyoshida.yamanashi.jp)