DAD LEAVES BOY, 7, ALONE ON MOUNT FUJI, POLICE WARN HIM

A Mount Fuji dad left his tired 7-year-old son behind and kept climbing, leaving police to rescue the boy and warn the father.

Police rescued the boy, who is from Nagoya, near the sixth station of Mount Fuji’s Fujinomiya route on August 20, 2026. His father, 48, had been hiking with him and his older brother.

The boy said he was tired and could not continue. His father told him to “wait here” and kept climbing with the older son, BBC reported.

A mountain-hut worker told FNN that father and son had argued after the boy said he was tired. The worker spotted the boy sitting alone on a bench around 7:40 a.m. and called for help.

The boy was found in foggy, rainy weather and was “tired and fussy” after waiting, BBC reported.

Police tracked down the father higher up the route, between the seventh and eighth stations. CNN reported that officers were waiting with the boy when the father and older son returned about five hours later.

The boy was unharmed.

Police reprimanded the father and warned him he could be held criminally liable, CNN reported.

A police officer told him: “Even if it means having to give up on climbing the mountain together, leaving a child behind is unacceptable,” BBC reported.

The father apologized. “I made a rash decision, and I deeply regret it,” he said, 7News reported.

Police rescued the boy and warned his father before handing him back, and no arrest or charge has been reported.