A town near Japan’s Mount Fuji has cancelled its iconic cherry blossom festival due to a “crisis” caused by overtourism and increasingly abhorrent visitor behaviour.
Officials in Fujiyoshida have made the unprecedented decision to shut down the annual event, saying an influx of badly behaved tourists has made daily life unbearable for residents and pushed the town beyond breaking point.
Millions of visitors travel to Japan each spring to see and photograph the pale pink cherry blossoms, with Fujiyoshida becoming quite the hotspot because its trees can be captured against the stunning backdrop of Mount Fuji, the country’s tallest mountain.
But the surge in visitors has come at a steep cost for locals.
Fujiyoshida mayor Shigeru Horiuchi said the sheer volume of tourists has led to chronic traffic congestion, widespread littering and repeated violations of residents’ privacy and property.
Tourists were “opening private home doors without permission to use the restroom”, trespassing, littering and “defecating in private yards and raising a fuss when residents pointed this out”.
Horiuchi said the behaviour had created “a strong sense of crisis” within the community.
“To protect the dignity and living environment of our citizens, we have decided to bring the curtain down on the 10-year-old festival,” he said during this week’s announcement.
The festival was launched in 2016 after the gates of Arakurayama Sengen Park were opened in an attempt to attract visitors to the area.
However, authorities said visitor numbers in recent years had “increased dramatically, exceeding the city’s capacity and resulting in overtourism, which is having a serious impact on the living environment of local residents”.
During peak cherry blossom season, it is estimated that as many as 10,000 people a day visit the town.
Officials said the surge was “due to factors such as the weak yen and explosive popularity fuelled by social media”.
The cancellation comes as Japan deals with a nationwide tourism boom that has overwhelmed major destinations, including Kyoto.
According to The Japan Times, 42.7 million tourists visited Japan in 2025 – an all-time high that surpassed 2024’s record of nearly 37 million.
Australians travelling to Japan has also surged, with last year being the first time that more than one million Aussies visited the country, marking a 15 per cent increase on 2024.
Data released by the Japan National Tourism Organisation shows 121,300 Aussies travelled to Japan in December alone.
While cherry blossoms, temples, skiing and improved accessibility continue to bring in visitors, the increased strength of the Australian dollar against the yen has further fuelled demand.
ABS data places Japan third among the top 10 short-term destinations for Australian travellers in November 2025, with visitor numbers rising steadily over the past six years.
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