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Thursday, 5th July 2012
In Japan Travel News,
Mount Fuji toilets help safeguard environment
New public toilets have been unveiled on Mount Fuji following a major refurbishment designed to increase capacity and help preserve the local environment.
Located some 2,300m up the 3,776m high mountain, the new facilities have increased previous capacity five-fold and allow the safe waste disposal of a maximum 15,000 people each day.
They have been constructed at the fifth station on the Fuji-Yoshida route up the mountain in a project worth 550 million yen (£4.4 million), the Yomiuri Shimbun reported.
Mount Fuji - a dormant volcano that last erupted in 1708 - is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Japan and the expensive project was carried out to help protect its ecology and help secure World Heritage Site status with a rise in visitor numbers predicted.
Last summer as many as 10,000 people used the previous facilities each day, more than three times the maximum capacity of 3,000.
"The environmental preservation of Mt. Fuji is important to achieving the goal of registering as a World Cultural Heritage site. I hope visitors will be comfortable using the new toilets," prefecture official Yasuichi Mizuguchi told the news provider.
Written by Graham McPherson
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