Father abandons 7-year-old on Mount Fuji to reach summit

August 21, 2026

A 48-year-old Japanese father was reprimanded by police after leaving his 7-year-old son alone on Mount Fuji so he could continue climbing toward the summit with his older child. The boy became exhausted around the mountain’s sixth station (about 2,500 meters), where the father told him to wait and then proceeded upward; a mountain hut worker found the child alone a few hours later in foggy, rainy conditions and alerted authorities. Police ordered the father to return for his son, who was unharmed, and criticized the decision as unacceptable, with the father later saying he made a “rash decision” and regretted it. Komo News