China is ‘polluting’ Mount Fuji, says Japanese study

A Japanese study is claiming that toxic air pollution from China is to blame for high mercury levels atop the country’s beloved Mount Fuji.

The research will likely do little to help simmering hostilities between the Asian giants, a relationship marred by historical animosities and territorial disputes.

“Whenever readings were high, winds were blowing from the continent (China),” Osamu Nagafuchi, the lead scientist on the study, said on Thursday.

Fuji was chosen “because it’s a place unaffected by urban pollution”, said Nagafuchi, an environmental science professor at the University of Shiga Prefecture.

Pollution levels on Mount Fuji have been monitored annually since 2007, he said, adding the decision to carry out the study on the 3,776-metre peak had nothing to do with it being designated a Unesco World Heritage site earlier this year.

The Unesco designation led to a surge in visitors to the iconic peak – which figures heavily in Japanese art and literature – during this summer’s climbing season.