Japan has 111 volcanoes, meaning that they have erupted within the last 10,000 years. The Japan Meterological Agency monitors about 50 of these and classifies 39 of them by alert levels on a scale of one to five. Of these 39, five are classified at level two, which means access is restricted to the volcano craters. These are Asamayama, Kuchinoerabujima, Asosan, Kusatsu-Shiranesan, and Suwanosejima. Sakurajima in Kagoshima Prefecture is at alert level three, which means it is not to be approached. It erupts a couple of hundred times a year. The rest of the active volcanoes are at the lowest alert one, indicating there may be increased activity in the future.
Mount Ontake, on the Gifu/Nagano border had the lowest alert rating when it erupted in September 2014, leaving 58 people dead and five missing. Motoshirane erupted in January 2018, spewing stones that killed the leader of a Self Defense Force team and injured 11 others. It had not erupted in 3,000 years and also had the lowest alert rating.
Mt. Fuji, the tallest peak in Japan, is still considered an active volcano, having last erupted in 1707. The Hoei Eruption occurred on the southeast slope of Mt. Fuji and gave off black smoke, cinders, atmsopheric vibrations, volcanic lightning, fall ash and other particulate matter. The eruptions continue intermittently for the next two weeks, burying homes and fields in villages near the base of the mountain. The Hoei Earthquake, estimated at 8.6 on the Richter Scale occurred 49 days prior to the eruption.
Volcanoes, earthquakes, typhoons -- Japan has it all.
