Take it or leave it: do regular hikers tend toward more responsible or deviant behaviour at Mount Fuji?

A better understanding of deviant tourist behaviour could help mitigate environmental and cultural impacts on protected areas. Aside from trash thrown by hikers, illicit mementoes and vandalism pose problems for site managers, especially in mountainous areas. This study examines hikers' perceptions of deviant behaviours such as taking scoria and leaving graffiti in the context of self-stated compliance with the ‘Leave No Trace’ (LNT) Principles on Mount Fuji's trails. After an on-site questionnaire was conducted over two summer seasons (2023–2024), a combination of independent sample t-tests and one-way Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA) was used to examine differences in LNT perceptions among the 525 respondents. Results revealed significant gaps among hikers linking their regular hiking experience with graffiti norms. Results also identified a link between deviant behaviour and collection of scoria as an illicit memento. A one-way MANCOVA indicated that prior experience hiking Fuji is amongst the significant covariances that influence hikers' scoria-collection behaviour. The findings may assist park managers in designing targeted educational outreach programs that discourage hikers' cultural impacts such as taking scoria and leaving graffiti.