50 free Mount Fuji trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Mount Fuji trivia quiz covers Japan's sacred mountain from every side: geology, history, climbing, art and myth. The easy questions are the ones any traveller should manage: which island it stands on, roughly how tall it is, whether it is still active, and which artist made it world-famous in woodblock prints. From there it digs into the details: the three tectonic plates that meet beneath it, the four phases of eruption that built the cone, the ash that fell on Edo in 1707, the first woman to reach the summit and the edict that finally allowed women up, the British diplomat who made the first foreign ascent, the airliner torn apart by turbulence in its lee, the weather station that closed after 72 years, the fifth stations and the tenth, the goraiko sunrise, the goddess Konohanasakuya-hime, the Fuji-ko cult, the compass myth of Aokigahara and the 2024 fee to climb the Yoshida trail. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries on Mount Fuji, the Hōei eruption, Aokigahara, the Fuji Five Lakes and Hokusai's Thirty-six Views before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our Japan, volcanoes and Tokyo quizzes next.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01On which Japanese island does Mount Fuji stand?
Honshu
It lies about 100 km southwest of Tokyo and is visible from the capital on clear days.
Q 02What is the summit elevation of Mount Fuji?
3,776 m
It is Japan's highest mountain and the seventh-highest island peak on Earth.
Q 03What type of volcano is Mount Fuji?
An active stratovolcano
Its exceptionally symmetrical cone is snow-covered about five months a year.
Q 04When did Mount Fuji last erupt?
1707-1708
The Hōei eruption created a new crater and a second peak, Mount Hōei, halfway down the southeast flank.
Q 05Fuji is one of Japan's 'Three Holy Mountains' - which two peaks complete the trio?
Tate and Haku
It is also a Special Place of Scenic Beauty and a Historic Site.
Q 06In which year was Mount Fuji added to the UNESCO World Heritage List as a Cultural Site?
2013
UNESCO recognises 25 sites of cultural interest in the Fuji locality, including the Fujisan Hongū Sengen Taisha shrine.
Q 07What do the two kanji in the standard spelling of 'Fuji' mean?
'Wealth' and 'man of status'
The kanji were applied by sound long after the name existed; its true origin is still debated.
Q 08Japanese speakers say 'Fuji-san' - what does the 'san' signify?
A reading of the character for 'yama'
Older poetic names include Fugaku and Fuyō-hō, the Lotus Peak.
Q 09Which 9th-century text links the name Fuji to the word for 'immortal'?
The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter
In the tale a goddess deposits the elixir of life on the peak, a tradition behind Hokusai's obsession with the mountain.
Q 10Who was the first woman on record to summit Mount Fuji, in 1832?
Tatsu Takayama
Women were formally barred until an 1872 government edict abolished female exclusion from sacred sites.
Q 11Which British diplomat made the first foreign ascent of Mount Fuji in September 1860?
Sir Rutherford Alcock
He climbed in 8 hours and descended in 3; his account in The Capital of the Tycoon introduced the mountain to Western readers.
Q 12Which US peak became Fuji's 'sister mountain' in 1936, nicknamed 'Tacoma-Fuji' by Japanese immigrants?
Mount Rainier
Mount St. Helens, before its 1980 eruption, was separately known as 'The Fuji of America'.
Q 13What caused BOAC Flight 911 to break up near Mount Fuji in March 1966, killing all 124 aboard?
Turbulence from lee waves off the peak
Q 21Mount Fuji sits at a triple junction of which three tectonic plates?
Eurasian, North American and Philippine Sea
The Pacific Plate subducts beneath them, driving the volcanism.
Q 22How wide is Fuji's main summit crater?
780 m
It is 240 m deep, and the upper slopes sit at 31-35 degrees, the angle of repose for dry gravel.
Q 23Scientists identify how many distinct phases of volcanic activity in the formation of Mount Fuji?
Four
Sen-komitake, Komitake Fuji, Old Fuji and the New Fuji formed around 10,000 years ago.
A memorial to the victims stands near the Gotemba New Fifth Station.
Q 14According to a Japanese saying, what sort of person climbs Mount Fuji twice?
A fool
A wise person, it says, climbs it once in a lifetime.
Q 15Which car brand's logo was inspired by Mount Fuji?
Infiniti
The mountain has also appeared in countless films and even lends its name to a sign in medicine.
Q 16For how many years had the staffed weather station on Fuji's summit operated when it closed in 2004?
72
At 3,780 m it was Japan's highest station and tracked typhoons by radar; an automated system replaced it.
Q 17Mount Fuji straddles the boundary of which two prefectures?
Shizuoka and Yamanashi
Gotemba, Fujiyoshida, Fujinomiya and Fuji are the four small cities around it.
Q 18Which lakes make up the group at the mountain's northern base?
Kawaguchi, Yamanaka, Sai, Motosu and Shōji
They were created by earlier eruptions; the area's main city Fujiyoshida is famous for udon noodles.
Q 19What is the lowest temperature ever recorded on Fuji's summit, in February 1981?
-38.0 °C
The summit has a tundra climate; the record high is 17.8 °C from August 1942.
Q 20In 2024 Fuji's seasonal snowcap formed on 6 November - why was that notable?
It was the latest since records began in 1894
The average first-snowcap date is 2 October.
Q 24Roughly how many parasitic cinder cones are aligned through Fuji's summit?
More than 100
The largest is Omuro-Yama; the mountain also has more than 70 lava tunnels.
Q 25How much volcanic ash did the 1707 Hōei eruption release, reaching Edo 100 km away?
800 million cubic metres
It produced no lava flow but caused landslides and starvation across the region.
Q 26Which two seismic events are thought to have triggered the Hōei eruption?
The 1703 Genroku and 1707 Hōei earthquakes
The Hōei quake was a magnitude 8-plus event just weeks before the eruption began.
Q 27In 2012, models put Fuji's magma chamber pressure how much above pre-1707 levels?
1.6 megapascals
With no way to measure the chamber directly, the estimate remained speculative.
Q 28Aokigahara forest, at Fuji's northwest base, grows on lava from an eruption in which year?
864 CE
Known as the Sea of Trees, it covers 30 square kilometres of hardened lava.
Q 29Why can navigation needles behave oddly in Aokigahara?
The lava's natural magnetism when the compass sits on the rock
The effect varies with the rock's iron content and only occurs with the compass directly on the lava.
Q 30Roughly how many people climbed Mount Fuji in 2009?
300,000
July and August are the main season, when huts operate and buses run to the trailheads.