Aokigahara (), also known as the , is a

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

on the northwestern flank of

Mount Fuji , or Fugaku, located on the island of Honshū, is the highest mountain in Japan, with a summit elevation of . It is the second-highest volcano located on an island in Asia (after Mount Kerinci on the island of Sumatra), and seventh-highest p ...

on the island of

Honshu , historically called , is the largest and most populous island of Japan. It is located south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Straits. The island separ ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, thriving on of hardened lava laid down by the last major eruption of Mount Fuji in 864 CE. The western edge of Aokigahara, where there are several caves that fill with ice in winter, is a popular destination for tourists and school trips. Parts of Aokigahara are very dense, and the porous lava rock absorbs sound, contributing to a sense of solitude that some visitors attribute to the forest. The forest has a historical reputation as a home to ''

yūrei are figures in Japanese folklore analogous to the Western model of ghosts. The name consists of two kanji, (''yū''), meaning "faint" or "dim" and (''rei''), meaning "soul" or "spirit". Alternative names include , meaning ruined or depart ...

'':

ghosts A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to rea ...

of the dead in

Japanese mythology Japanese mythology is a collection of traditional stories, folktales, and beliefs that emerged in the islands of the Japanese archipelago. Shinto and Buddhist traditions are the cornerstones of Japanese mythology. The history of thousands of year ...

. At least since the 1960s, Aokigahara has become associated with

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

, eventually becoming known in English by the nickname "Suicide Forest" and gaining a reputation as one of the world's most-used suicide sites. Because of this, signs at the head of some trails urge suicidal visitors to think of their families and contact a

suicide prevention Suicide prevention is a collection of efforts to reduce the risk of suicide. Suicide is often preventable, and the efforts to prevent it may occur at the individual, relationship, community, and society level. Suicide is a serious public health ...

association.

Geography

The forest floor mostly consists of

volcanic rock Volcanic rock (often shortened to volcanics in scientific contexts) is a rock formed from lava erupted from a volcano. In other words, it differs from other igneous rock by being of volcanic origin. Like all rock types, the concept of volcanic r ...

. Designated trails lead to several tourist attractions such as the

Narusawa Ice Cave The Narusawa Ice Cave (, ''Narusawa Hyōketsu'') is a lava tube located in the Aokigahara forest, in the part that belongs to Narusawa Village, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. It is one of the three larger lava tubes at the northern foot of Mount Fu ...

Fugaku Wind Cave Fugaku Wind Cave ( ja, 富岳風穴) is a lava tube at the northern foot of Mount Fuji, Japan. It is the largest of the several lava tubes that are found in the Aokigahara forest in Fujikawaguchiko Town, Yamanashi Prefecture. Aokigahara Forest ...

and

Lake Sai Bat Cave Lake Sai Bat Cave (, ''Saiko Kōmori Ana'') is the largest of the several lava tubes that are near Saiko Lake, Lake Sai, in the Aokigahara forest in the northern side of Mount Fuji, Japan. It is known as a cave where visitors can observe the bats ...

which are three larger lava caves near Mount Fuji, the ice cave being frozen year-round. Aokigahara has been falsely portrayed as a place where navigational compasses go haywire. Needles of magnetic compasses will move if placed directly on the lava, aligning with the rock's natural magnetism, which varies in iron content and strength by location. However, a compass behaves as expected when held at a normal height. The

Japan Ground Self-Defense Force The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force ( ja, 陸上自衛隊, Rikujō Jieitai), , also referred to as the Japanese Army, is the land warfare branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces. Created on July 1, 1954, it is the largest of the three service b ...

has conducted its ranger courses including

navigation Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation, ...

training in the forest since 1956.

Flora and fauna

Mammals include the

Asian black bear The Asian black bear (''Ursus thibetanus''), also known as the Asiatic black bear, moon bear and white-chested bear, is a medium-sized bear species native to Asia that is largely adapted to an arboreal lifestyle. It lives in the Himalayas, sout ...

small Japanese mole The small Japanese mole (''Mogera imaizumii'') is a species of mammal in the family Talpidae. It is endemic to Japan. Even though they are extinct in central Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京� ...

, bats, mice, deer, fox, boar, wild rabbit, Japanese mink and

Japanese squirrel The Japanese squirrel (''Sciurus lis'') is a tree squirrel in the genus ''Sciurus'' endemic to Japan. It was described by Dutch zoologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck in 1844. The Japanese squirrel's range includes the islands of Honshū, Shikoku, and ...

. Birds include great tit, willow tit, long-tailed tit, great spotted woodpecker, pygmy woodpecker, bush warbler, Eurasian jay, Japanese white-eye, Japanese thrush, brown-headed thrush, Siberian thrush, Hodgson's hawk-cuckoo, Japanese grosbeak, lesser cuckoo, black-faced bunting, oriental turtle dove, and common cuckoo. There are ground beetles and other insects, including many species of butterflies, even in the forest interior ''

Argynnis paphia The silver-washed fritillary (''Argynnis paphia'') is a common and variable butterfly found over much of the Palearctic realm – Algeria, Europe, temperate Asia, and Japan. Description The silver-washed fritillary butterfly is deep orange with ...

'', ''

Chrysozephyrus smaragdinus '' Chrysozephyrus smaragdinus'' is a small butterfly found in the East Palearctic that belongs to the lycaenids or blues family. Subspecies *''C. s. smaragdinus'' Ussuri, China (Shaanxi, Sichuan) *''C. s. abaensis'' Dantchenko , 2000 China *' ...

'', ''

Celastrina argiolus The holly blue (''Celastrina argiolus'') Retrieved April 20, 2018. is a butterfly that belongs to the lycaenids or blues family and is native to the Palearctic. The holly blue has pale silver-blue wings spotted with pale ivory dots. Seitz des ...

'', '' Celastrina sugitanii'', '' Curetis acuta'', '' Favonius jezoensis'', ''

Neptis sappho ''Neptis sappho'', the Pallas' sailer or common glider, is a nymphalid butterfly found in Central Europe, Russia, India and other parts of temperate Asia and Japan.Parantica sita ''Parantica sita'', the chestnut tiger, is a butterfly found in Asia that belongs to the crows and tigers, that is, the danaid group of the brush-footed butterflies family. Description Wings elongate, almost as in ''Idea''. Upperside of for ...

'' and ''

Polygonia c-album ''Polygonia c-album'', the comma, is a food generalist ( polyphagous) butterfly species belonging to the family Nymphalidae. The angular notches on the edges of the forewings are characteristic of the genus ''Polygonia'', which is why species i ...

'' are found. The forest has a variety of conifers and broadleaf trees and shrubs including: ''

Chamaecyparis obtusa ''Chamaecyparis obtusa'' (Japanese cypress, hinoki cypress or hinoki; ja, 檜 or , ) is a species of cypress native to central Japan in East Asia, and widely cultivated in the temperate northern hemisphere for its high-quality timber and orna ...

'', ''

Cryptomeria japonica ''Cryptomeria'' (literally "hidden parts") is a monotypic genus of conifer in the cypress family Cupressaceae, formerly belonging to the family Taxodiaceae. It includes only one species, ''Cryptomeria japonica'' ( syn. ''Cupressus japonica'' L ...

'', ''

Pinus densiflora ''Pinus densiflora'', also called the Japanese red pine, the Japanese pine, or Korean red pine, is a species of pine tree native to East Asia. Distribution and habitat ''P. densiflora'' has a home range that includes Japan, the Korean Peninsula, ...

'', ''

Pinus parviflora ''Pinus parviflora'', also known as five-needle pine, Ulleungdo white pine, or Japanese white pine, is a pine in the white pine group, ''Pinus'' subgenus ''Strobus'', native to Korea and Japan. It is a coniferous evergreen tree, growing to 15– ...

'', ''

Tsuga sieboldii ''Tsuga sieboldii'', also called the southern Japanese hemlock, or in Japanese, simply tsuga (栂), is a conifer native to the Japanese islands of Honshū, Kyūshū, Shikoku and Yakushima. In Europe and North America the tree is sometimes used a ...

'', '' Acer distylum'', ''

Acer micranthum ''Acer micranthum'', the small-leaved maple, is a species of flowering plant in the family Sapindaceae in the snakebark maple group, native to Japan, on Honshū, Kyūshū and Shikoku. Its Japanese name is the .Kobe city''Acer micranthum'' (in Jap ...

'', ''

Acer sieboldianum ''Acer sieboldianum'' (Siebold's maple; ja, コハウチワカエデ, translit=kohauchiwakaede) is a species of maple native to Japan and common in the forests of Hokkaidō, Honshū, Shikoku and Kyūshū Islands; in the south of the range it is ...

'', '' Acer tschonoskii'', ''

Betula grossa ''Betula grossa'', commonly known as Japanese cherry birch (Japanese: 梓 ''azusa''), is a species of birch native to Japan, where it grows naturally in mixed woodland on hill and mountain slopes in Honshu, Shikoku , and Kyushu. It was introduced ...

'', ''

Chengiopanax sciadophylloides ''Chengiopanax sciadophylloides'' is a flowering tree in the family Araliaceae native to Japan. Previously included in the genus ''Eleutherococcus'', it is distinguished from other members of that genus by not having spines or prickles and ITS s ...

'' (as ''Acanthopanax sciadophylloides'' a.k.a. ''Eleutherococcus sciadophylloides''), ''

Clethra barbinervis ''Clethra barbinervis'', the Japanese clethra, is a species of flowering plant in the family Clethraceae. It is native to eastern Asia, where it is found in southern China, Korea, and Japan. Its natural habitat is in open mountain forests. It is ...

'', '' Enkianthus campanulatus'', '' Euonymus macropterus'', ''

Ilex pedunculosa ''Ilex pedunculosa'', called longstalk holly, is a species of flowering plant in the genus ''Ilex'', native to central and southern China, Taiwan, and Japan. A lanky shrub or shrubby tree typically reaching in the garden, it is quite cold hardy ...

'', ''

Ilex macropoda ''Ilex macropoda'' is a species of flowering plant in the holly family Aquifoliaceae, native to southern China, Korea, and Japan. A deciduous tree typically tall, it is found in mixed forests, forest edge A woodland edge or forest edge is the t ...

'', ''

Pieris japonica ''Pieris japonica'', the Japanese andromeda or Japanese pieris, is a species of flowering plant in the heath family Ericaceae. It is native to eastern China, Taiwan, and Japan, where it grows in mountain thickets. This medium-sized evergreen shru ...

'', ''

Prunus jamasakura ''Prunus serrulata'' or Japanese cherry is a species of cherry tree that grows naturally in Japan, China, and Korea, and it also refers to a cultivar produced from ''Prunus speciosa'' (Oshima cherry), a cherry tree endemic in Japan.Toshio Katsu ...

'', ''

Quercus mongolica ''Quercus mongolica'', commonly known as Mongolian oak, is a species of oak native to Japan, China, Korea, Mongolia, and Siberia. The species can grow to be tall. The flavono-ellagitannin The Flavono-ellagitannins or complex tannins are a cla ...

'' var. ''crispula'', '' Rhododendron dilatatum'', ''

Skimmia japonica ''Skimmia japonica'', the Japanese skimmia, is a species of flowering plant in the family Rutaceae, native to Japan, China, and Southeast Asia. Growing to tall and wide, it is a rounded evergreen shrub with glossy, leathery leaves. It is widely ...

'' f. ''repens'', ''

Sorbus commixta ''Sorbus commixta'', the , is a species of flowering plant in the family Rosaceae, native to Japan, Sakhalin (in the Russian Far East), and the Korean island of Ulleungdo.Okayama University of Science''Sorbus commixta''(in JapaneseRushforth, K. (1 ...

'' (as ''Sorbus americana'' ssp. ''japonica'') and ''

Toxicodendron trichocarpum ''Toxicodendron'' is a genus of flowering plants in the sumac family, Anacardiaceae. It contains trees, shrubs and woody vines, including poison ivy, poison oak, and the lacquer tree. All members of the genus produce the skin-irritating oil uru ...

'' (as ''Rhus trichocarpa''). The dominant tree species between 1,000 and 1,800 metres of altitude is '' Tsuga diversifolia'' and from 1,800 to 2,200 metres is ''

Abies veitchii ''Abies veitchii'' (Veitch's fir; シラビソ or シラベ shirabiso or shirabe), also known as Veitch's silver-fir, is a fir native to Japan on the islands of Honshū and Shikoku. It lives in moist soils in cool wet mountain forests at elevati ...

''. Deeper in the forest there are many herbaceous flowering plants including ''

Artemisia princeps ''Artemisia princeps'', also called Yomogi, Japanese mugwort, Korean wormwood, Korean mugwort or first wormwood in English, is an Asian plant species in the sunflower family, native to China, Japan and Korea. It is a perennial, very vigorous pla ...

'', '' Cirsium nipponicum'' var. ''incomptum'', '' Corydalis incisa'', '' Erigeron annuus'', '' Geranium nepalense'', '' Kalimeris pinnatifida'', ''

Maianthemum dilatatum ''Maianthemum dilatatum'' (snakeberry, two-leaved Solomon's seal or false lily of the valley) is a common rhizomatous perennial flowering plant that is native to western North America from northern California to the Aleutian islands, and Asia acr ...

'', ''

Oplismenus undulatifolius ''Oplismenus undulatifolius'', commonly known as wavyleaf basketgrass, is a species of perennial grass from the family Poaceae that is native to Eurasia, specifically Southern Europe through Southern Asia. Due to its invasive nature, it can b ...

'' and ''

Reynoutria japonica ''Reynoutria japonica'', synonyms ''Fallopia japonica'' and ''Polygonum cuspidatum'', is a species of herbaceous perennial plant in the knotweed and buckwheat family Polygonaceae. Common names include Japanese knotweed and Asian knotweed. It is ...

'' (

syn. The Botanical and Zoological Codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. * In botanical nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that applies to a taxon that (now) goes by a different scientific name. For example, Linnae ...

''Polygonum cuspidatum''). There are also the myco-heterotrophic '' Monotropastrum humile'', frequent

liverworts The Marchantiophyta () are a division of non-vascular land plants commonly referred to as hepatics or liverworts. Like mosses and hornworts, they have a gametophyte-dominant life cycle, in which cells of the plant carry only a single set of ge ...

, many

moss Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) '' sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and hor ...

es and many

fern A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The polypodiophytes include all living pteridophytes except t ...

s. The forest edges have many more species.

Suicides

Aokigahara is sometimes referred to as the most popular site for

suicide in Japan In Japan, is considered a major social issue. In 2017, the country had the seventh highest suicide rate in the OECD, at 14.9 per 100,000 persons, and in 2019 the country had the second highest suicide rate among the G7 developed nations. Ho ...

. In 2003, 105 bodies were found in the forest, exceeding the previous record of 78 in 2002. In 2010, the police recorded more than 200 people having

attempted suicide A suicide attempt is an attempt to die by suicide that results in survival. It may be referred to as a "failed" or "unsuccessful" suicide attempt, though these terms are discouraged by mental health professionals for implying that a suicide resu ...

in the forest, of whom 54 completed the act. Suicides are said to increase during March, the end of the

fiscal year A fiscal year (or financial year, or sometimes budget year) is used in government accounting, which varies between countries, and for budget purposes. It is also used for financial reporting by businesses and other organizations. Laws in many ...

in Japan. As of 2011, the most common means of suicide in the forest were

hanging Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging i ...

drug overdose A drug overdose (overdose or OD) is the ingestion or application of a drug or other substance in quantities much greater than are recommended.

. In recent years, local officials have stopped publicizing the numbers in an attempt to decrease Aokigahara's association with suicide. The rate of suicide has led officials to place a sign at the forest's entry urging suicidal visitors to seek help and not take their own lives. Annual body searches have been conducted by police, volunteers, and journalists since 1970. The site's popularity has been attributed to

Seichō Matsumoto was a Japanese writer, credited with popularizing detective fiction in Japan. Matsumoto's works broke new ground by incorporating elements of human psychology and ordinary life. His works often reflect a wider social context and postwar nihil ...

's 1961 novel ''Nami no Tō'' (''Tower of Waves''). However, the history of suicide in Aokigahara predates the novel's publication, and the place has long been associated with death; ''

ubasute is a mythical practice of senicide in Japan, whereby an infirm or elderly relative was carried to a mountain, or some other remote, desolate place, and left there to die. Kunio Yanagita concluded that the ubasute folklore comes from India’ ...

'' may have been practiced there into the nineteenth century, and the forest is reputedly haunted by the ''

'' of those left to die.

References in media

Aokigahara has been referred to in several media, including

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

and

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

, and

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

s. The 2015 film '' The Sea of Trees'' with

Matthew McConaughey Matthew David McConaughey ( ; born November 4, 1969) is an American actor. He had his breakout role with a supporting performance in the coming-of-age comedy '' Dazed and Confused'' (1993). After a number of supporting roles, his first succes ...

Ken Watanabe is a Japanese actor. To English-speaking audiences, he is known for playing tragic hero characters, such as General Tadamichi Kuribayashi in '' Letters from Iwo Jima'' and Lord Katsumoto Moritsugu in ''The Last Samurai'', for which he was nomi ...

and

Naomi Watts Naomi Ellen Watts (born 28 September 1968) is a British actress. After her family moved to Australia, she made her film debut there in the drama '' For Love Alone'' (1986) and then appeared in three television series, '' Hey Dad..!'' (1990), '' ...

also tells a story happening there, as does the 2016 horror film '' The Forest''. During late 2017 and early 2018, the Logan Paul suicide forest controversy began with a YouTube video showing the Aokigahara forest, in which Paul showed the body of a suicide victim on camera, that shocked many viewers and brought widespread condemnation. It was the subject of a

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

production (first broadcast 10 September 2018) in which four poets traveled to Aokigahara to write and record poetry in the forest. The poets Arai Takako, Jordan A. Y. Smith, Osaki Sayaka, and Yotsumoto Yasuhiro co-authored a bilingual (Japanese/English) anthology of the poems and short writings on Aokigahara, titled ''Sea of Trees: Poetic Gateways to Aokigahara'' (ToPoJo Excursions, 2019). An American playwright of Japanese ancestry, Kristine Haruna Lee, wrote and staged a play, ''Suicide Forest'', in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in March 2019. It addressed suicide in America and Japan, referencing the Aokigahara Forest.

References

External links

Aokigahara Forest information
* (

Vice.com ''Vice'' (stylized in all caps) is a Canadian-American magazine focused on lifestyle, arts, culture, and news/politics. Founded in 1994 in Montreal as an alternative punk magazine, the founders later launched the youth media company Vice Media, ...

) * * {{Authority control Forests of Japan Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Geography of Yamanashi Prefecture Lava flows Mount Fuji Narusawa, Yamanashi Reportedly haunted locations in Japan Suicides in Japan Tourist attractions in Yamanashi Prefecture

Geography

Flora and fauna

Suicides

References in media

See also

References

External links