Fuji cherry festival canceled

Fujiyoshida has canceled its 2026 cherry blossom festival at Arakurayama Sengen Park after city officials said Mount Fuji crowds had gone beyond what the area could handle. (asahi.com) The city announced the decision on February 3, 2026. The festival site is the Chureito Pagoda viewpoint in Yamanashi Prefecture, where spring photos of cherry blossoms, the pagoda and Mount Fuji have spread widely online. (asahi.com; japan.travel) More than 200,000 visitors now arrive during the festival period, and more than 10,000 people a day have been crowding the park during the roughly two-week April event. Visitors heading to the observation deck have faced waits of up to three hours. (asahi.com) The festival itself was created in 2016 to draw more tourists. After the coronavirus pandemic eased, the same promotion campaign collided with a national tourism surge and a viral photo spot in a city of roughly 46,000 to 47,000 residents. (asahi.com; forbes.com) Japan National Tourism Organization data show the country logged a record 3,908,900 foreign visitors in April 2025 alone. Fujiyoshida’s cancellation lands as local governments around Mount Fuji have been testing stricter controls on traffic, parking and photo hotspots. (japan.travel; time.com) Residents in Fujiyoshida said the crowds brought traffic jams, cigarette litter and trespassing. The Asahi Shimbun reported that some schoolchildren were pushed off sidewalks by congestion, while some tourists tried to enter nearby homes to use toilets without permission. (asahi.com) Mayor Shigeru Horiuchi said the city felt “a strong sense of crisis” over residents’ daily lives. He said Fujiyoshida would work toward a system in which tourism and local life can coexist. (asahi.com) Canceling the festival does not close the park. Fujiyoshida’s official tourism pages show Arakurayama Sengen Park will still operate with temporary traffic restrictions from April 1 to April 19, 2026, including parking changes around the site. (fujiyoshida.net) The city had already been using heavy crowd controls during the 2025 festival, including road closures, extra parking and shuttle buses from April 1 to April 18, 2025. Those steps did not keep Fujiyoshida from scrapping the 2026 event one year later. (city.fujiyoshida.yamanashi.jp; asahi.com) The pressure point is a compact hillside park built around a famous view. Fujiyoshida’s official guide says the observation deck sits at the top of a 398-step climb, above narrow local streets and limited parking. (fujiyoshida.net; city.fujiyoshida.yamanashi.jp) Around Mount Fuji, officials have already shown they are willing to sacrifice postcard views to manage crowds. In neighboring Fujikawaguchiko, authorities put up a black mesh barrier in May 2024 to block a Mount Fuji view behind a Lawson convenience store after complaints about dangerous tourist behavior. (time.com; stripes.com) For spring 2026, the cherry trees and the pagoda remain in place, but the city is no longer packaging the crush of visitors as a festival. Fujiyoshida is still asking travelers to stay out of residential areas and not take photos without permission. (asahi.com)