TOKYO: The number of people who got lost in mountains in Japan in 2019 stood at 2,937, with elderly people accounting for more than half of them, National Police Agency data showed Thursday.

Of the total, 299 were confirmed dead or have gone missing. The number of people getting lost in mountains has been on an uptrend in the past 10 years although the figure for 2019 was down by 192 from the preceding year.

"Appropriate plans and full-blown equipment are necessary for preventing accidents in mountains," an NPA official said.

Of the 2019 total, 1,488 people were aged 60 or over, with 668 in their 70s and 640 in their 60s.

By prefecture, Nagano in central Japan saw the largest number of people getting stranded in mountains, at 290, followed by Hokkaido, northernmost Japan, at 232, Yamanashi, west of Tokyo, at 185 and Hyogo in western Japan, at 168.

Climbers made up of 75 pct of the people lost in mountains while about 12 pct were those hunting vegetables and mushrooms.

Foreigners accounted for 103 of the total, with over 50 pct of them getting lost during backcountry skiing or snowboarding in mountains not overseen by ski resort operators.

The NPA also said that 1,538 people got involved in water accidents last year, with 695 of them losing their lives or going missing.

Of those who died or went unaccounted for, 30 were junior high school or younger children, with 15 of them suffering the fate in rivers and nine in the seas.

JIJI Press