Qualla: East Fuji Maneuver Area

East Fuji Maneuver Area: Introduction

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User:Jungle, CC BY 2.5. Every August, the thunder rolls across Fuji's eastern foothills and it is not the weather. Eighty tanks grind through volcanic soil, 80 artillery pieces fire in coordinated volleys, 30 aircraft streak overhead, and more than 2,000 soldiers of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force demonstrate what modern combined-arms warfare looks like -- all within sight of Japan's most sacred mountain. The East Fuji Maneuver Area has been military ground for over seven centuries. At 88.09 square kilometers, it sprawls across the municipalities of Gotemba, Susono, and Oyama in Shizuoka Prefecture, a vast expanse of hilly terrain that has served every incarnation of Japanese military power from medieval samurai to 21st-century mechanized infantry.

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Image: User:Jungle | CC BY 2.5

East Fuji Maneuver Area: Samurai Drills to Imperial Guns

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kramertron, CC BY 3.0. The military pedigree of this ground runs deep. In the 13th century, samurai of the Kamakura Shogunate used the open terrain at Fuji's base for mounted combat training -- the wide volcanic slopes providing the kind of unobstructed ground that horsemen needed. The area's sparse po...

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Image: Kramertron | CC BY 3.0

East Fuji Maneuver Area: Four Years in Court

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit ensign_at_e233net, CC BY 2.0. After Japan's defeat in 1945, American occupation forces took control of the training area. When the post-war Japan Ground Self-Defense Force was established in 1954, it desperately needed training facilities -- but getting access to East Fuji proved anything but simple. Local la...

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Image: ensign_at_e233net | CC BY 2.0

East Fuji Maneuver Area: Fire and Steel Beneath the Volcano

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Midori, CC BY 3.0. The annual Fuji Firepower Demonstration, held each August, is the most visible expression of what happens on this ground year-round. For decades, the two-hour exhibition drew tens of thousands of spectators -- military officials, foreign dignitaries, and Japanese civilians alike ...

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Image: Midori | CC BY 3.0

East Fuji Maneuver Area: Shared Ground, Complicated Neighbors

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jungle, CC BY-SA 3.0. The East Fuji Maneuver Area exists in an unusual state of shared sovereignty. The JGSDF controls most of the range, but the U.S. Marine Corps' Combined Arms Training Center at Camp Fuji operates within it under the terms of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty. American Marines from un...

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Image: Jungle | CC BY-SA 3.0