A wildfire that broke out on Saturday in the mountains spanning Japan’s Kofu City and Fuefuki City in Yamanashi prefecture remained uncontained, local media reported on Sunday.
The fire started at around 1:30 p.m. local time on Saturday in the mountain area. Despite firefighting efforts, including the deployment of helicopters from neighbouring prefectures and the Self-Defense Forces, the fire has not been brought under control, the national broadcaster NHK reported, Xinhua news agency reported.
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So far, there have been no injuries, and the fire did not pose an immediate threat to residential areas at the mountain’s base, according to the report.
Authorities have continued to monitor the situation, with plans to resume firefighting at dawn on Monday.
Yamanashi prefecture has seen multiple wildfires since last month, including accidents in Ichikawamisato Town and Uenohara City.
In Japan the peak fire season typically begins in mid-January and lasts around 16 weeks. There were 62 VIIRS fire alerts reported between 15th of January 2024 and 13th of January 2025 considering high confidence alerts only. This is low compared to previous years going back to 2012.
In 2020, Japan had 15.9 Mha of natural forest, extending over 43 per cent of its land area. In 2023, it lost 23.8 kha of natural forest, equivalent to 26.0 Mt of CO₂ emissions.
From 2001 to 2023, Japan lost 12.5 kha of tree cover from fires and 903 kha from all other drivers of loss. The year with the most tree cover loss due to fires during this period was 2012 with 1.22 kha lost to fires — 2.7 per cent of all tree cover loss for that year.
