Hyogo Police Sign Mountain Rescue Pact With YAMAP Hiking App

Hyogo Prefectural Police signed an agreement on October 30 with Yamap, the Fukuoka-based operator of the hiking app YAMAP, to strengthen mountain rescue. The two sides will share climbing plan notifications, known in Japan as tozan-todoke, with the aim of preventing accidents and shortening response times.

What the deal covers

YAMAP provides information on more than 25,000 mountains across Japan. Using GPS, it shows a hiker's position and trails even without a mobile signal, and users can file their climbing plan inside the app. Cumulative downloads reached about 5.9 million as of September.

Under the pact, police will receive plan notifications submitted through the app and gain access to a "distress search system" that shows a missing hiker's location and travel route. According to the announcement, it is the 35th such agreement between Yamap and a prefectural police force in Japan.

At the signing ceremony, Yamap director Yasuomi Kurauchi said the company would do its utmost to protect the basic expectation that climbers enjoy the mountains and return home safely. Naoyuki Sugimoto, head of the police regional affairs department, pledged close cooperation.

Why Hyogo needs it

Hyogo has many easily reached peaks near urban areas, such as Mount Rokko, but inexperience and poor preparation lead to climbers losing their way or falling. Yamap says app users made about 300,000 climbs in the prefecture between October 2025 and September 2026, with Rokko, Maya and Hatafuriyama especially popular.

Police data show 126 distress incidents in the prefecture in 2025, down 11 from a year earlier, involving 146 people, down 9. That was the eighth-highest figure nationwide. Seven people died, down three, and none of them had filed a climbing plan. Across all people in distress, the filing rate was only around 5%.

Motohiro Morimoto of the police planning division urged hikers to file a plan, prepare equipment carefully and allow generous time margins.