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When a dangerous volcano and almost 41 million people are close neighbors, books like this get written and papers are published all the time.

Scientific meetings like this, convened a year after Japan’s 2011 earthquake and tsunami, address the problem even though findings are disconcerting (link added):

Prof Toshitsugu Fujii of the University of Tokyo Earthquake Research Institute said last year’s March 11 earthquake transformed the Earth’s crust in the region and another earthquake is expected to hit in the Nankai trough, TBS reported. He was quoted as saying there is a high probability that this tectonic activity will cause Mount Fuji to become more active.

A survey carried out by the University of Tokyo’s Earthquake Research Institute in May found a 30-km fault running from Gotemba in Shizuoka Prefecture beneath Mount Fuji. Research results indicated it is likely to be active.

Nine years after that, more research reportedly showed that the hazard from Mount Fuji might have been underestimated.

While some said in response that the report caused unnecessary fear, authorities could not afford to ignore it.

Eleven years after that 2012 meeting — this past March:

This information was covered in many ways, from news stories to (for some reason) language lessons.

(Perhaps you aren’t interested in learning Japanese, but the eruption simulation and other graphics and video at the latter link are interesting.)

We’re not done yet.

In June 2023, a research team reported that a M5.9 earthquake near Fujisan shortly after the 2011 subduction-zone megathrust quake affected the fire mountain’s magma system.

Our results demonstrate that the volcanism of Mount Fuji was reactivated by the Shizuoka earthquake, implying that this volcano is sufficiently sensitive to external events that are considered to be enough to trigger eruptions.

Yes, there is more than enough existential fear to go around.

But that’s not the way to save lives.

It’s always better to recognize hazards before they occur and to make plans for the crisis before it arrives.

Japan is now applying centuries of experience, as well as the latest modern scientific insights, to this.

Tokyo is always under the volcano, and Fujisan is powerful, but my money is on H. sapiens to see it through.

Faith helps, too. All I can do is share a little of my own that helps me through dark times. Perhaps others might be encouraged, too.

Fear is born from arming oneself.
Just see how many people fight!
I’ll tell you about the dreadful fear
that caused me to shake all over:

Seeing creatures flopping around,
Like fish in water too shallow,
So hostile to one another!
— Seeing this, I became afraid.

This world completely lacks essence;
It trembles in all directions.
I longed to find myself a place
Unscathed — but I could not see it.

Seeing people locked in conflict,
I became completely distraught.
But then I discerned here a thorn
— Hard to see — lodged deep in the heart.

It’s only when pierced by this thorn
That one runs in all directions.
So if that thorn is taken out —
one does not run, and settles down…

Attadanda Sutta: Arming Oneself (Sn 4.15), translated from the Pali by Andrew Olendzki. Access to Insight (BCBS Edition), 2 November 2013.

More information:

• News story (English) about the 2023 Fuji plan updates.
• Japan Meteorogical Agency warnings page (English). No volcano warnings are up at the time of writing.
• Global Volcanism Program page.

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Featured image: Mt. Fuji Hazard Map Study Committee, Mt. Fuji Volcano Disaster Prevention Counci via this story, CC BY 4.0.

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