Nestled to the northwest of the majestic Mount Fuji in Japan, the Aokigahara Forest claims 13.5 square miles of forest so thick with foliage that it’s known as the sea of trees.

Tragically though, the forest is also known by another name – the suicide forest – a name that has given it notoriety over the years. For many visitors have chosen this place as the setting for their final moments, walking in with no intention of ever walking back out — so much so that Akiagora has the second-highest rate of suicide in the world after the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

Statistics on suicide rates in the forest vary, in part because the area is so lush that some bodies can go undiscovered for years or might be lost forever. There have been estimates with claims that between 30 and 100 people a year take their lives there.

In 2022 and 2023, Yamanashi Prefecture, which the Aokigahara Forest calls home, had the highest number of suicides per 100,000 people among Japan’s 47 prefectures, based on where the bodies were discovered.

Around 30 percent of these were people from outside the prefecture or of unknown address.

However, other sources report that statistics for recent years are unavailable, in part because the Japanese government has stopped releasing numbers in order to prevent future deaths by suicide.

And it could also be in part because the government is trying everything it can to change the Aokigahara Forest’s current claim to fame.

The prefectural government in Yamanashi is reported to have has launched a pilot trial operation for drone patrols to prevent suicides around the forest.

Equipped with speakers and infrared camera, the night patrols would see drones fly above Aokigahara Forest with the intention of finding people who are thinking about suicide and leading them to safety.

The drone patrols at night will supplement foot patrols by locals during the day.

The local government contracted JDrone, a Tokyo-based drone operations company, to contact the patrols, which started in mid-September and will continue on a test basis until March 2025.

To prevent people at risk of suicide from avoiding the patrols, information including the routes and schedules the drones will take will not being released.

During a demonstration flight for media recently, the infrared camera-equipped, autonomous drone flew at between 80 and 100 meters above the forest.

When a person is detected off a trail, another, a drone will immediately be despatched to their location. Using the drone’s speakers, the pilot will relay messages such as, “If you need help, wave your hand,” and, “Are you all right?”, as foot patrollers approach the area.

The Yamanashi prefecture has been funding patrols of Aokigahara in Fujikawaguchiko and the neighbouring village of Narusawa since 2010. Every day, patrollers check outlying areas by car and forest trails on foot.

Aokigahara has a wretched history of people ending their lives in it: according to the Yamanashi Prefectural Government’s health promotion division, 182 people committed suicide in the forest in each of 2019 and 2020, followed by 192 in 2021, 199 in 2022 and 215 in 2023.

“We want to dispel the image of Aokigahara Forest as a famous suicide spot,” Keiko Chiken, head of the health promotion division said, expressing her hopes for positive results.