Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters

Take your next trip with Atlas Obscura!

Our small-group adventures are inspired by our Atlas of the world's most fascinating places, the stories behind them, and the people who bring them to life.

Visit Adventures
Trips Highlight
A view of Brașov’s Old Town.
Romania • 12 days, 11 nights
Legends of Romania: Castles, Ruins & Culinary Delights
from
Balkans road trip
Bosnia and Herzegovina • 9 days, 8 nights
Balkans Road Trip: Serbia, Croatia & Bosnia and Herzegovina
from
View all trips
Top Destinations
Latest Places
Most Popular Places Random Place Lists Itineraries
Add a Place
Download the App
Top Destinations
View All Destinations »

Countries

  • Australia
  • Canada
  • China
  • France
  • Germany
  • India
  • Italy
  • Japan

Cities

  • Amsterdam
  • Barcelona
  • Beijing
  • Berlin
  • Boston
  • Budapest
  • Chicago
  • London
  • Los Angeles
  • Mexico City
  • Montreal
  • Moscow
  • New Orleans
  • New York City
  • Paris
  • Philadelphia
  • Rome
  • San Francisco
  • Seattle
  • Stockholm
  • Tokyo
  • Toronto
  • Vienna
  • Washington, D.C.
Latest Places
View All Places »
The Sea Water Distilling Plant.
Sea Water Distilling Plant
Contemplative paths.
Ayo Rock Formations
Parking Lot Shoeprints
Dewey Square Pylon & Bent 38
Latest Places to Eat & Drink
View All Places to Eat »
The pavlova comes crowned with jewel-like fruit.
Central Park Boathouse
The Village Tavern of Long Grove - exterior.
The Village Tavern
Hunter House Hamburgers
L’Escamoteur
Names on the bartop.
The Dive
Recent Stories
All Stories Video Podcast
Most Recent Stories
View All Stories »
No thanks.
AO Mailbag: Which Places Just Aren’t Worth Visiting?
Benshi would introduce and provide commentary for films like A Page of Madness.
Remembering the Heyday of Japan’s Silent Film Narrators
The Horn & Hardart Automat was a staple of urban dining in midcentury New York City.
All Hail the Slop Bowl, Lunch of Our Ancestors
The Grateful Dead’s “Wall of Sound” on display in Las Vegas.
The Grateful Dead’s Wall of Sound Changed Live Music Forever

No search results found for
“”

Make sure words are spelled correctly.

Try searching for a travel destination.

Places near me Random place

Popular Destinations

  • Paris
  • London
  • New York
  • Berlin
  • Rome
  • Los Angeles
Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters
Sign In Join
Places near me Random place
All Japan Ōshima Island Mount Mihara

Mount Mihara

This active volcano's siren song to suicide jumpers forced authorities to build a fence.

Ōshima Island, Japan

Added By
Rachel James
Email
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list
CAPTION
The smoking maw of Mount Mihara.   yano@mama.akari.ne.japan on panoramio
Volcanic peak of Mount Mt. Mihara.   Donners on Wiki
Volcano!   yano@mama.akari.ne.japan on panoramio
Volcanic crater of Mount Mihara in 1930s.   Unknown on Wiki
Texas Trail, a hiking trail leading to the cone.   Guilhem Vellut on Flickr
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list

About

An active volcano on the Japanese Island of Izu Oshima, Mount Mihara is an exciting and dramatic place for all sorts of reasons. 

Its first and most obvious interesting characteristic is its ability to spew fantastic lava fountains into the sky. In 1986, it put on a spectacular show that included explosive and central vent eruptions, impressive lava flows, and a lava lake blast. Its finale was a 10-mile high subplane plume that could be clearly viewed by the 12,000 inhabitants of the island as they sailed off to places a little less exciting until the mountain settled down. 

Its next claim to fame was as the prison of a very famous Japanese celebrity, Godzilla. The perfect setting for a monster story, In the film The Return of Godzilla, the Japanese government decided that Mount Mihara was the only fitting place for the fire-breathing lizard. He remained in his fiery cell until the sequel, Godzilla vs. Biollante. It also served as a location in the Japanese horror film Ring as the place tortured character Shizuko Yamamura chose to take her own life, which is sadly a case of fiction mirroring real life. 

Perhaps the most intriguing yet sobering feature of Mount Mihara is its unfortunate appeal to those who wish to end their life. In the 1920s, it was found that a vantage point near the cone made leaping into the crater a convenient way to die by suicide. Quickly earning the moniker "Suicide Point," the extremely popular crater claimed 944 lives in 1933 alone. In the next two years, the occurrence of at least 350 more led to morbid visitors traveling to the volcano simply to watch the inevitable suicidal person jump into it. 

Finally tiring of people coming en masse to plunge to a horrible, fiery death, authorities built a giant wire fence around the vantage point and made it illegal to purchase a one-way ticket to the island. Despite efforts to offer more support to despondent citizens, Japan still suffers from the cultural idea that suicide is an honorable way to end things, and has a handful of popular places to do so, including the Aokigahara Suicide Forest, which is supposedly the second most popular place to commit suicide in the world following the Golden Gate Bridge.

 

Related Tags

Volcanoes Film Locations Geology
Atlas Obscura Adventures

Hidden Japan: Sado Island, Nara & Kyoto

Explore a different side of Japan.

Book Now

Community Contributors

Added By

Rachel

Edited By

unknownartist828

  • unknownartist828

Published

May 28, 2013

Edit this listing

Make an Edit
Add Photos
Sources
  • http://disinfo.com/2013/02/the-worlds-most-romantic-death-spot-japans-suicide-volcano/
  • http://excitingearth.wordpress.com/2013/04/03/mount-mihara-the-most-depressing-volcano-in-the-world/
Mount Mihara
Ōshima Island
Japan
34.724444, 139.394722

Nearby Places

Kawazu Sakura Festival

Kawazu, Japan

miles away

Kawazu Nanadaru Loop Bridge

Kawazu, Japan

miles away

Usami Kannon-ji

Itō, Japan

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Japan

Japan

Asia

Places 786
Stories 111

Nearby Places

Kawazu Sakura Festival

Kawazu, Japan

miles away

Kawazu Nanadaru Loop Bridge

Kawazu, Japan

miles away

Usami Kannon-ji

Itō, Japan

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Japan

Japan

Asia

Places 786
Stories 111

Related Places

  • A beach on the island with distinctive rock formations.

    Malpe, India

    Thonsepar

    These four small islands contain unique hexagonal rock formations.

  • Approaching the south rim of Easy Chair Crater on the trail..

    Nye County, Nevada

    Easy Chair Crater

    An unusual double cinder cone with a bent oval crater, in the Lunar Crater Volcanic Field.

  • A view of the perfectly round Lac Pavin.

    Besse-et-Saint-Anastaise, France

    Lac Pavin

    This volcanic crater lake is renowned for its perfectly round shape, stunning blue-green waters, and unique geological properties.

  • Looking down the Gorge from the footbridge at its head.

    Tuttle, Idaho

    Malad Gorge

    Some 46,000 years ago, a volcanic eruption led to a flooding event that carved this short canyon with steep vertical walls.

  • Arequipa, Peru

    Añashuayco Quarry

    An outdoor gallery of sculptures chiseled from a unique stone that deemed Arequipa's old town a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

  • West crater, looking slightly northeast.

    Cleft, Idaho

    Crater Rings

    Two geologically young and nearly circular volcanic subsidence craters, each about a half-mile in diameter, abruptly break the nearly featureless Snake River Plain.

  • This way to Volcano Observatory

    Flemming, Montserrat

    Montserrat Volcano Observatory

    Safely view the Soufrière Hills volcano, which has been erupting since 1995.

  • Abert Rim from US-395 near Valley Falls.

    Valley Falls, Oregon

    Abert Rim

    This spectacular fault escarpment, a popular hang-glider launch point, extends some 30 miles long and towers about 2,500 feet over the valley floors to the west.

Aerial image of Vietnam, displaying the picturesque rice terraces, characterized by their layered, verdant fields.
Atlas Obscura Membership

Become an Atlas Obscura Member


Join our community of curious explorers.

Become a Member

Get Our Email Newsletter

Follow Us

Facebook YouTube TikTok Instagram Pinterest RSS Feed

Get the app

Download the App
Download on the Apple App Store Get it on Google Play
  • All Places
  • Latest Places
  • Most Popular
  • Places to Eat
  • Random
  • Nearby
  • Add a Place
  • Stories
  • Food & Drink
  • Itineraries
  • Lists
  • Video
  • Podcast
  • Newsletters
  • All Trips
  • Family Trip
  • Food & Drink
  • History & Culture
  • Wildlife & Nature
  • FAQ
  • Membership
  • Feedback & Ideas
  • Community Guidelines
  • Product Blog
  • Unique Gifts
  • Work With Us
  • About
  • FAQ
  • Advertise With Us
  • Advertising Guidelines
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms of Use
Atlas Obscura

© 2025 Atlas Obscura. All Rights Reserved.