Aokigahara - The Suicide Forest
At the base of Mount Fuji lies a forest so dense that it's called the Sea of Trees. It's also known as the Suicide Forest - Japan's most popular location for self-inflicted death. The spirits of those who die there are said to wander forever, lost in the darkness between the trees.
Aokigahara, the Sea of Trees, sprawls across 14 square miles at the northwest base of Mount Fuji. The forest is beautiful and ancient, growing on hardened lava flows from an 864 AD eruption. It’s also one of the most haunted places in Japan - not because of ancient ghosts, but because of the hundreds who have chosen to die there.
The Forest
Aokigahara is unusually dense. The trees grow so close together and the canopy so thick that the forest floor exists in permanent twilight. The porous volcanic rock absorbs sound, creating an eerie silence. Magnetic iron in the soil can cause compasses to malfunction. Those who leave the marked paths can quickly become disoriented.
The forest has been associated with death for centuries. In feudal Japan, legend claims, families would abandon elderly relatives in Aokigahara during famines - the practice of ubasute. Whether historically accurate or not, the association with death was established long before the modern era.
The Suicides
Since the 1950s, Aokigahara has become Japan’s most common location for suicide. The trend may have begun or accelerated with the 1960 novel “Kuroi Jukai” (Black Sea of Trees) by Seichō Matsumoto, which ends with a lovers’ suicide in the forest.
Annual statistics vary:
- In 2003, 105 bodies were found
- Numbers peaked around 100 per year in the late 2000s
- Authorities stopped publishing statistics to avoid inspiring copycat suicides
- Unofficial counts suggest 50-100 bodies discovered annually
The true number may be higher. The forest is vast, and bodies can go undiscovered for years.
Those who die in Aokigahara often leave behind camps - tents, personal belongings, ribbons tied to trees marking the path they took. Some come to die and change their minds. Signs at the forest’s entrance urge visitors to reconsider: “Your life is a precious gift from your parents. Please think about them and the rest of your family. You don’t have to suffer alone.”
The Ghosts
In Japanese folklore, those who die in anger, sadness, or desperation become yūrei - restless spirits bound to the place of their death. Given the hundreds who have died violently in Aokigahara, the forest is believed to be thick with yūrei.
Visitors and workers report:
The Sounds: Despite the forest’s silence, people report hearing whispers, screaming, or the sound of someone crashing through underbrush when no one is there.
The Figures: Dark shapes are seen moving between trees, vanishing when approached. Some witnesses describe pale figures in white - the traditional burial garment.
Being Followed: Hikers report the persistent feeling of being watched or followed, even on the marked paths.
The Lost: Some believe the spirits of the dead deliberately confuse visitors, leading them deeper into the forest or preventing them from finding the path out.
Physical Effects: Visitors report sudden depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts that lift upon leaving the forest - as if the accumulated despair is contagious.
The Workers
Forest workers and police conduct annual searches for bodies, a grim duty that has psychological impacts. They report finding bodies in various states of decomposition, some decades old. Those who do this work speak of the psychic weight of the forest.
Spiritualists claim the forest is so saturated with death that it functions as a magnet for despair - that the spirits of the dead draw the living toward the same fate.
The Reality
Aokigahara’s haunting is different from most. The ghosts here are recent - people who can sometimes be identified, whose families still mourn them. The forest is not haunted by ancient spirits but by the fresh dead and dying.
Prevention efforts include increased patrols, removal of the forest from maps, and mental health awareness campaigns. But Aokigahara’s reputation as a place to die has become self-perpetuating, drawing those who have already decided to end their lives.
The Sea of Trees remains beautiful and terrible - a place where the barrier between the living and the dead has grown dangerously thin.