A Farewell on the Mountain: The Popularity of a Book Depicting the Real-Life Story of a Missing Person
With the popularity of mountaineering, lost-and-found is on the rise.
“This is not just a lost item. These were the belongings and remains of someone who perished on this mountain. Could something like this happen in a familiar local mountain? I was thrown into confusion by this unexpected turn of events.”
In recent years, mountaineering has gained popularity across a wide range of age groups. With this rise, however, comes an increasing number of mountaineering accidents. According to data released by the National Police Agency, the number of accidents in 2023 reached 3,568, the highest since records began. Among them, 335 people lost their lives, and 42 remain missing.
When we think of mountaineering accidents, we often imagine life-threatening situations in high-altitude mountains such as the Northern and Southern Alps. However, this data also includes accidents that occurred in lower mountains and local hills (satoyama).
For someone like the author, who has no mountaineering experience, the data may not resonate immediately. What does it mean to get lost on a general hiking trail, which people visit for a leisurely walk or water activities? Why are there so many missing persons?
A book that answers these questions is “Until the Day I Can Say ‘Welcome Home'” (Shinchosha), a nonfiction work that has been gaining attention since its release in April two years ago and continues to be reprinted.
The author, Fujimi Nakamura, is a nurse with two children and the head of the private mountain rescue team “LiSS.” In her book, six stories are shared of the team’s search and rescue efforts. Through these stories, readers understand how accidents can happen unexpectedly, even on low mountains or local hills (satoyama), and the heart-wrenching, unrelenting desire of families who just want their loved ones to come home safe.
I spoke with Nakamura about LiSS’s activities and what she hoped to convey through her book.
The reality is that many families of missing persons have given up on the search.
When a mountaineering accident occurs, the first to respond is the official mountain rescue teams from police, fire departments, and other public organizations. However, if the victim is not found during the initial rescue efforts, what happens next?
According to Nakamura, the search by the first responders is typically concluded within three days to a week. After that, the family must either search on their own or turn to private rescue organizations for help.
“Currently, there are two or three private search organizations like ours, but these groups have only been established in the past five years. Moreover, there are 40 to 50 people who go missing due to mountaineering accidents each year, and only about 10% of those cases are handled by private search organizations. In most other cases, families give up searching. If the family is elderly, they may not even know that private rescue teams exist.”
Nakamura’s journey into this world began when, accompanied by a mentor involved in mountain rescue, she accidentally discovered the body of a missing person while hiking. She describes this moment in her book:
“This was the first time I had seen the body of someone who had been dead for three years. What’s more, it was in a mountain that is part of an introductory course for beginners.”
“It was just a little off the hiking trail. I couldn’t stop crying when I imagined that this person had been waiting alone for three years, just off the trail, to be found.”
After this experience, Nakamura was invited to join a private mountain rescue organization, where she began developing her own search methods. One of the techniques she came up with was using her nursing experience to apply “profiling” methods in the search efforts.
Eventually, Nakamura founded the mountain rescue team “LiSS.” She explains the reason behind establishing the organization:
