A father abandoned his seven-year-old son on the slopes of Mount Fuji after the child said he was too tired to continue, choosing instead to press on towards the summit with his older boy.
The family had been ascending Japan's tallest mountain on Thursday morning, taking the Fujinomiya Trail route.
When the youngest child became fatigued at the sixth station, situated at roughly 2,490 metres and still at least five hours short of the peak, the father opted neither to rest nor to head back down.
Rather than adjusting his plans, he told the first-grader from Nagoya to remain where he was and continued climbing with his other son, who is a first-year middle school student.
The boy is believed to have been left alone at approximately 4.30am, based on estimated hiking times. For more than three hours, the child sat by himself on a bench at the mountain station.
It was not until around 7.40am that a worker from a nearby mountain hut spotted the young boy.
By that point, fog had started rolling in and rain was beginning to fall, conditions that can shift rapidly and dangerously on the volcano.
Concerned for the child's safety as the weather worsened, the hut worker took him inside to shelter and alerted the police.
The boy, thankfully, was found to be physically unharmed despite having spent hours alone at altitude in increasingly hostile conditions.
Officers managed to make contact with the father, who by that time had reached the eighth station further up the mountain. Police instructed him to give up his ascent and return to collect his son.
When the pair were reunited, authorities did not hold back in their criticism.
"Even if it means having to give up on climbing the mountain together, leaving a child behind is unacceptable," police told the father.
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The man acknowledged his poor judgement. "I made a rash decision, and I deeply regret it," he said.
No charges appear to have been brought, though the reprimand from officers made clear that the decision to leave a young child unattended at nearly 2,500 metres on an active volcano was regarded as wholly irresponsible.
In the wake of the incident, police used the opportunity to issue broader guidance to hiking groups on the mountain.
They urged climbers to remain together at all times and to adjust their pace according to whoever in the party has the least physical capability or endurance.
Mount Fuji, standing as Japan's highest peak, draws vast numbers of hikers each year during its main climbing season, which runs from July through August. Between 200,000 and 300,000 people make the ascent over the summer months.
The incident occurred just days before seven tourists were killed when a helicopter came down near the foothills of Mount Ololokwe in Kenya's Samburu County. Five of the dead were reported to be American nationals.
The helicopter, identified as a Eurocopter EC130 B4 with registration 5Y-GYM, crashed at 9.13am local time after departing from the Loisaba wildlife reserve. It had been heading towards the Ewaso Nyiro River, which flows through the Samburu National Reserve.
The flight was operated by Tropic Air, a local safari company, according to Kenyan media. Footage shared on social media captured dense black smoke billowing from the crash site at the base of the mountain, which is considered sacred by the Samburu people and rises to around 2,000 metres.
The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority confirmed it was working with relevant agencies in response to the accident and extended its "deepest condolences to the families of the victims". Its spokesman declined to confirm passenger numbers or whether tourists had been on board.
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