Wednesday marked the 35th anniversary of the crash of a Japan Airlines jumbo jet in Ueno, Gunma Prefecture, which killed 520 passengers and crew members.
Some bereaved family members of the victims started climbing to the crash site on the Osutaka ridge from Wednesday morning.
About 300 bereaved family members visit the site on the victims' death anniversary every year, but some people have decided not to participate in the activity for consoling the victims' souls at the site this summer, because of concern over the novel coronavirus.
Kimi Ozawa of Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture, lost her husband in the crash. He was 29.
"I brought with me the thoughts of people who couldn't come," Ozawa, 64, said.
She put her hands together softly in front of a memorial monument on the ridge about 1,540 meters above sea level, together with four other people, including her son and his wife.
In this year's memorial climb, only bereaved families and certain others are allowed to enter the mountain on five separate days, including Wednesday, to avoid crowding.
The scale of the memorial service on Wednesday evening at the Irei no Sono memorial garden at the foot of the mountain has been reduced.
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