Aokigahara forest

Aokigahara is a forest below Mount Fuji in Japan, with the Narusawa Ice Cave, a tourist site, at its edge. Japanese literature has tied it to suicide, and Wikipedia says it is reputed to be haunted.

Aokigahara, also called the Jukai or "sea of trees", lies at the base of Mount Fuji. People also visit it as tourists: the operator of the Narusawa Ice Cave says the cave sits at the forest's eastern entrance and is a year-round tourist stop in the Fuji Five Lakes district.

WNYC's Studio 360 said in 2011 that Japanese writing has cast the forest as a sacred place to die. Wikipedia credits much of that reputation to Nami no Tō, a 1961 novel by Seichō Matsumoto, but says the link with death is older. It says ubasute may have been practised there into the nineteenth century, and that yūrei of the people left there to die are said to haunt the forest.

In 2018 BBC News reported outrage over a video by the YouTuber Logan Paul. BBC said he and his companions went in to film what they called a haunted forest, found the body of a man, and reacted with shock but also joked.

The deaths in the forest are real. BBC reported that yearly figures are kept from the public to avoid drawing attention to the place, and that signs in the forest urge anyone thinking of ending their life to get medical help. If you are struggling, please contact a local crisis line.