Nestled in a valley with an altitude of 850 m in the central Nagano region, Jigokudani Yaen-Koen is inhabited by wild Japanese macaques that regularly bathe in its hot volcanic spring waters.
On frigid, snowy winter days, “many monkeys are seen soaking in the hot spring, some for hours on end”, its website says.
Touted as a “monkey paradise”, the park is the “world’s only place” to offer such a sight, its website claims.
Recent years have seen the number of tourists – the vast majority of them non-Japanese – rise sharply, sometimes totalling 3,000 to 4,000 a day, a park official told AFPdeclining to be named.
“We have been seeing incredibly long queues of visitors waiting outside the ticket booth. To ease that, we will have them buy tickets in advance” online, the official said.
This photo taken on Feb. 7, 2025 shows tourists taking photographs of Japanese macaques, commonly referred to as “snow monkeys”, taking an open-air hot spring bath, or “onsen” at the Jigokudani (Hell’s Valley) Monkey Park in the town of Yamanouchi, Nagano prefecture. Photo by AFP |
The shift toward an online booking system will start in August, with a possible cap of 2,000 people a day.
As the number of tourists snowballed, so did instances of bad behavior, such as trying to feed or touch the monkeys.
Some have even “tried to bathe” together with the animals, the official said.
About 42.7 million tourists flocked to Japan in 2025, an all-time high, as the weak yen boosted the appeal of the “bucket list” destination.
Complaints of overcrowding have grown in hotspots like Kyoto, with some disrespectful tourists accused of harassing kimono-clad geisha performers in their frenzy for photos.
In February, a cherry blossom festival in Fujiyoshida, boasting a highly Instagrammable view of Mount Fuji, was cancelled after residents complained that their “quiet lives” were under threat.
The city in central Japan complained of chronic traffic jams, cigarette butts tossed, trespassing and even people defecating in private gardens.
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