Japan has abandoned plans to build a railway on the way to Mount Fuji and is considering a new option instead.
Authorities envision a hydrogen-powered transportation system developed by China's state-owned railway company CRRC, as well as alternatives from Japanese firms.
China's "autonomous rapid transit" (ART) resembles a trolleybus. The Fuji option would significantly reduce infrastructure construction costs while allowing authorities to control summer overcrowding and reduce CO2 emissions, Yamanashi Governor Kotaro Nagasaki, who introduced the project, told a news conference.
In recent years, the number of visitors to Japan's most famous mountain has skyrocketed, and authorities are scrambling to reduce the impact on the environment.
Tourist control measures and a 2,000 yen ($13) entrance fee have limited the number of people climbing Fuji this summer to about 178,000 people, according to preliminary data, compared with more than 200,000 last year.
Yamanashi authorities announced their plans in 2021. to build a light rail transport system to the so-called fifth station at 2305 m.
Currently, people can drive up a toll road to this point, from where they walk to the 3,776-meter-high summit.
The governor said the transport will be operational in 2034.
Before the project is officially presented to local residents, a feasibility study will be carried out.
An unprecedented number of tourists are flocking to Japan, which wants to welcome 60 million people. visitors per year until 2030 - about twice the record for the whole of 2019. | BGNES, AFP
