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Aokigahara (青木ヶ原, 'Aucuba Tree Meadow'), also known as the Sea of Trees (樹海, Jukai), is a forest on the northwestern flank of Mount Fuji on the island of Honshu in Japan, thriving on 30 square kilometres (12 sq mi) of hardened lava laid down by the last major eruption of Mount Fuji in 864 CE.

The western edge of Aokigahara, where there are several caves that fill with ice in winter, is a popular destination for tourists and school trips. Parts of Aokigahara are very dense, and the porous lava rock absorbs sound, contributing to a sense of solitude that some visitors attribute to the forest. The forest has a historical reputation as a home to yūrei: ghosts of the dead in Japanese mythology. At least since the 1960s, Aokigahara has become associated with suicide, eventually becoming known in English by the nickname "Suicide Forest" and gaining a reputation as one of the world's most-used suicide sites. Because of this, signs at the head of some trails urge suicidal visitors to think of their families and contact a suicide prevention association.

Designated trails lead to several tourist attractions such as the Narusawa Ice Cave, Fugaku Wind Cave and Lake Sai Bat Cave which are three larger lava caves near Mount Fuji, the ice cave being frozen year-round. Aokigahara has been portrayed as a place where navigational compasses go haywire. The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force has conducted its Ranger Courses including navigation training in the forest since 1956.

Aokigahara maintains a thriving temperate ecosystem, with numerous native plants and animals. Birds include great tit, willow and long-tailed tits, great spotted and Japanese pygmy woodpeckers, bush-warbler, Eurasian jay, warbling white-eye, Japanese, brown-headed and Siberian thrushes, Hodgson's hawk-cuckoo, Japanese grosbeak, lesser and common cuckoos, black-faced bunting and the oriental turtle dove. Herpetofauna in the region includes the black-spotted frog (Pelophylax nigromaculatus), Japanese five-lined skink (Plestiodon finitimus), Japanese forest ratsnake (Euprepiophis conspicillata), tiger keelback (Rhabdophis tigrinus) and the montane brown frog (Rana ornativentris). Invertebrates include ground beetles and other insects, including many species of lepidopterans (even within the forest's interior), such as the silver-washed fritillary (Argynnis paphia), Chrysozephyrus smaragdinus, the holly blue (Celastrina argiolus), C. sugitanii, Curetis acuta, Favonius jezoensis, Neptis sappho, Parantica sita and Polygonia c-album are found. The dominant tree species between 1,000 and 1,800 metres of altitude is Tsuga diversifolia and from 1,800 to 2,200 metres is Abies veitchii. Deeper in the forest, there are many herbaceous and flowering plants, including Artemisia princeps, Cirsium nipponicum var. incomptum, Corydalis incisa, Erigeron annuus, Geranium nepalense, Kalimeris pinnatifida, Maianthemum dilatatum, Oplismenus undulatifolius and Reynoutria japonica (syn.

Aokigahara is sometimes referred to as the most popular site for suicide in Japan. As of 2011, the most common means of suicide in the forest were hanging or drug overdose. The rate of suicide has led officials to place a sign at the forest's entry urging suicidal visitors to seek help and not take their own lives. However, the history of suicide in Aokigahara predates the novel's publication, and the place has long been associated with death; ubasute may have been practiced there into the nineteenth century, and the forest is reputedly haunted by the yūrei of those left to die.

Aokigahara has been referred to in numerous forms of entertainment and documentary media, including anime and manga, films, literature, music lyrics and video games; a drama-mystery film, The Sea of Trees (2015), takes place in the forest, as does American screenwriter Jason Zada's horror film The Forest (2016). Smith, Osaki Sayaka, and Yotsumoto Yasuhiro co-authored a bilingual (Japanese/English) anthology of the poems and short writings on Aokigahara, titled Sea of Trees: Poetic Gateways to Aokigahara (ToPoJo Excursions, 2019).

Suicide Forest in Japan (May 2012) on YouTube (Vice.com)

Quick Facts

• Parts of Aokigahara are very dense, and the porous lava rock absorbs sound, contributing to a sense of solitude that some visitors attribute to the forest.
• The western edge of Aokigahara, where there are several caves that fill with ice in winter, is a popular destination for tourists and school trips.
• At least since the 1960s, Aokigahara has become associated with suicide, eventually becoming known in English by the nickname "Suicide Forest" and gaining a reputation as one of the world's most-used suicide sites.
• The forest has a historical reputation as a home to yūrei: ghosts of the dead in Japanese mythology.
• Aokigahara is sometimes referred to as the most popular site for suicide in Japan.

Source material: Wikipedia - "Aokigahara". Adapted and summarized for DiscoverScroll. Original contributors are credited through the linked Wikipedia article. Read original on Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes were made from the original.