Another barrier to Mount Fuji photo taking is going up as tourists disturb residents

A tall metal fence will be built to control unruly tourists who have annoyed residents at a popular Mount Fuji photo spot.

It follows the erection last month of a black screen in a nearby town to block an Instagram-famous view of the snow-capped volcano rising from behind a convenience store.

Despite its name, the structure is an ordinary bridge over a river, with a narrow pavement separated from the road by a waist-high concrete wall.

But people have been jaywalking across the road to reach a vacant area between the two lanes of traffic, says Haruhito Yoshizaki, a tourism official in Fuji.

There, they pose for photos, twirl for videos or just chill out – some even take their suitcases with them.

To deter this risky behaviour, authorities have already put up low metal scaffolding and signs telling people to keep away from the stretch of tarmac. Next, authorities say they plan to erect a 1.8 metre (6 feet) high metal mesh fence around the area by the end of June.

Residents “welcome visitors as long as basic rules are observed”, Yoshizaki says, adding the move is meant to ease the “frustration of local residents”.

“Maybe we can build a sightseeing course” instead to encourage more considerate exploration, he adds.

A pedestrian staircase to the bridge also appears in countless photos on Instagram and other platforms, and in wedding pictures – because, from a certain angle, it appears to lead to Mount Fuji.

Residents have also grumbled about tourists parking illegally in the quiet neighbourhood, or shouting to one another when taking wide shots from afar.

The Dream Bridge has existed for about a decade but photo-hungry visitors began to congregate there in November, Yoshizaki says.

Record numbers of overseas tourists are coming to