Mt. Hiko, one of Japan’s major monk training areas of yore and a destination for many a modern-day hiker, is getting a public toilet on its zenith. The summit of Mt. Hiko summit was once treated as a holy sanctuary where even “spitting was prohibited”, and Fukuoka Prefecture has decided to install a toilet next March to keep the area sanitary. Once the toilet is built on the top of Mt. Hiko’s Nakadake Peak, which clocks in at 1,188m, it will be the highest toilet in Fukuoka Prefecture. According to Soeda Town, Mt. Hiko attracts about 200,000 hikers every year, most of whom use the path originating at Hikosan Shrine. The hike to the summit takes about 1.5 hours, but there are no toilets along the way so some people resort to relieving themselves au naturel. For this reason, 41 local groups signed a petition last year requesting the shrine and the town to install a toilet. Fukuoka Prefecture, which manages the mountain paths, will utilize a Ministry of the Environment subsidy to install a toilet in the rest house on Mt. Hiko’s pinnacle. Source: Nishinippon Shimbun, July 17
