News On Japan

Search for live-streamer who fell from Mt. Fuji finds badly damaged corpse half-mile below peak

Oct 31, 2019 (soranews24.com) - On October 28, users of Japanese video-streaming website Niconico were shocked when a young Japanese man who was live-streaming his hike to the top of Mt. Fuji tumbled off of Japan’s highest mountain.

With the peak in sight, he started up one of the last sloped sections of the climb, saying “This part is dangerous” literally two seconds before he lost his footing.

Someone who was watching the live stream contacted the police, but a helicopter search was unable to locate the man. A 10-person alpine search-and-rescue team was dispatched by the Shizuoka Prefectural Police early the next morning, but after a full day they too were unable to find the live-streamer.

Sadly, on the afternoon of October 30, the police discovered a dead body in the snow near Mt. Fuji’s seventh station. The elevation where the body was found is approximately 3,000 meters (9,842 feet), which would be a 776-meter (2,545-foot) fall from Mt. Fuji’s summit.

The body had been severely damaged, and though the search team was unable to identify the deceased on-site, they strongly suspect it is the missing live-streamer. No identification or phone was found, but the latter point matches with the content of the stream, as the hiker’s smartphone could be seen bouncing away from him as he rolled down the side of the mountain.

The name of the live-streamer has yet to be released, but an examination of his previous Niconico videos showed that he had climbed Fuji multiple times this year, and as recently as September 7. However, this appears to have been his first attempt to scale Mt. Fuji following the official closing of the mountain to hikers on September 10, after which the mountain begins to see frequent snow and other conditions unsafe for hikers.

Examining the live-streamer’s associated Twitter account, police learned that he departed Tokyo by bus at around 8 a.m. on the morning of October 28, bound for one of the mountain’s fifth stations, roughly half-way to the peak and as high up the mountain as travelers can go by car.

Source: ANNnewsCH

News On Japan
POPULAR NEWS

Japan's World Cup campaign begins on June 14 when the Samurai Blue face the Netherlands at Dallas Stadium in Texas, a clash that will showcase some of the game's most talented players and pit two ambitious teams against one another in a crucial Group F opener. While Japan arrives without injured winger Kaoru Mitoma, one of its most recognizable stars, the squad still boasts a wealth of talent drawn from Europe's top leagues.

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) announced that an El Niño phenomenon is believed to have developed this spring, warning that Japan is likely to experience above-average temperatures nationwide this summer despite the climate pattern's traditional association with cooler summers.

Narita International Airport Corporation is expected to announce next month that it will apply to the national government for project certification as part of the process to enable compulsory land acquisition for the construction of a new runway at Narita Airport, according to sources familiar with the matter.

A fire broke out at Arima Inari Shrine near the Arima Onsen hot spring resort area in Kobe on the night of June 9th, destroying multiple buildings and leaving an elderly Shinto priest and his wife with minor injuries.

Japan's national soccer team arrived in Nashville, Tennessee, on June 8th from Monterrey, Mexico, where it had been conducting a pre-World Cup training camp, and held its first practice session at its base camp for the FIFA World Cup in North America.

MEDIA CHANNELS
         

MORE Society NEWS

A fire broke out at Arima Inari Shrine near the Arima Onsen hot spring resort area in Kobe on the night of June 9th, destroying multiple buildings and leaving an elderly Shinto priest and his wife with minor injuries.

Two men, including the head of the Japan Cycling Association, have been arrested by the Metropolitan Police Department on suspicion of defrauding two men in Kagoshima Prefecture out of 30 million yen by falsely promising a massive return on a purported patent-related investment.

A bear that had been repeatedly spotted in commercial and residential areas of Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture, was captured in a residential neighborhood at around 3:30 p.m. on June 9th after authorities used a tranquilizer gun, but the city remains on alert because police say they cannot rule out the possibility that another bear may still be roaming the area.

Nara Prefectural Police have arrested seven people, including a 46-year-old Yokohama man who described himself as a "messenger of God," on suspicion of unlawfully confining a teenage boy entrusted to their care by his parents, allegedly threatening him, confiscating his belongings, and forcing him to sleep naked.

A man believed to be in his 50s or 60s was found dead with knives lodged in his left eye and abdomen inside a container at a company property in Kobe's Suma Ward on June 8th, prompting police to investigate the possibility of a criminal case.

The family of James "Weston" Higginbotham, a 20-year-old Auburn University student who disappeared during a family vacation in Japan, announced on June 7th that he has been found dead after a volunteer search-and-rescue team located his body in a mountainous area outside Kyoto, bringing a week-long multinational search to a tragic end.

A clinic director and a former Peruvian staff member have been referred to prosecutors after the man allegedly performed medical procedures without a license, including an external cephalic version—a procedure used to manually turn a baby into the correct position before birth—at an obstetrics and gynecology clinic in Fukuoka City, raising concerns about patient safety and oversight in maternity care.

A 14-year-old junior high school girl was arrested on suspicion of robbery resulting in injury after allegedly spraying a woman in her 60s in the face and stealing her wallet during a robbery attempt in Kasukabe, Saitama Prefecture.