A seven-year-old boy sat alone on a bench on Mount Fuji for nearly eight hours Thursday morning after his father left him behind to continue his ascent.
The 48-year-old father from Nagoya parted ways with the child at around 4:30 a.m. on the Fujinomiya trail's sixth station, more than 2,000 metres (6,500 feet) above sea level, after the boy said he was too tired to keep going. The man handed his son some snacks and a drink, told him to wait, and continued climbing.
The father had also been on the journey with his older son, around 12 or 13, who already moved ahead, and the man spent roughly five more hours ascending to the summit after leaving his younger son, according to The Guardian.
A mountain hut worker found the seven-year-old sitting alone at around 7:40 a.m., roughly 100 metres from a sheer drop. Rain and thick fog had moved in by then. The worker brought the boy inside to shelter and called police, who took him into protective custody.
Officers tracked the father to somewhere between the seventh and eighth stations, a three-hour climb above where he had left his son, and ordered him to turn back, per BBC News. The boy had been waiting alone for close to eight hours by that point and was described as tired and fussy.
After the reunion, police reprimanded the father for leaving a child unattended on an active volcano. He apologized, telling officers he had made a rash decision and deeply regretted it.
A local police spokesperson said the incident underscored a basic principle for group hikes: "Even if it means having to give up on climbing the mountain together, leaving a child behind is unacceptable." Officers urged hikers to plan any Mount Fuji ascent around the stamina of the least capable person in the group.
Mount Fuji, a UNESCO World Heritage Site standing at 3,776 metres (12,389 feet), draws around 200,000 climbers each year during its official season, which runs from early July to early September. Weather on the mountain shifts quickly, and hypothermia is a real risk for hikers even in summer months.
In July, a 99-year-old woman required rescue on the same Fujinomiya route after falling and injuring her hip and back.
