Unauthorized felling of 23 trees on other people's property in Fujikawaguchiko Town - Chinese national hotelier arrested

On April 26, 2025, the Yamanashi Prefectural Police Fujiyoshida Station announced that it had arrested a suspect, Guo Yachuan (commonly known as Masaharu Akiyama), a Chinese national who runs a hotel, on suspicion of damaging property for cutting down and dying trees on adjacent land without permission in the Oishi district of Fujikawaguchiko Town. (Image: Yamanashi Prefectural Police Fujiyoshida Police Station ©Google Street View)

According to the police, between December 30, 2021 and January 20, 2022, Guo is suspected of cutting down 23 branches of trees that were growing on someone else's property adjacent to the hotel he manages without permission and injecting herbicides into the trunks to kill them in order to secure a view of Mt. Fuji.

In this case, three people who are said to be responsible for the execution have already been arrested in September~October 2024, one of whom was fined 300,000 yen by summary order in December of the same year, and the remaining two have not been charged. The arrest is against Guo himself.

In major media reports on this case, TV Asahi's information program "Good Morning" reported on April 29 that the hotel represented by the suspect Guo was "Kumonokami Fuji Hotel."
Local media reported on the Yomiuri Shimbun on the night of April 26, NHK and Yamanashi Broadcasting System on April 28, but the name of the hotel was not mentioned.