By Go Onishi
     The Japanese Alpine Club, which celebrated the 105th anniversary of its founding on Oct. 14, will launch a full-scale campaign to establish a new national holiday called ''Mountain Day.''
     ''Isn't it good to have a 'Mountain Day' as there is Marine Day?'' the club asks as it prepares to initiate the campaign.
     JAC hopes to designate the proposed day as a national holiday to fight a drop in its membership and urge people of all ages, but especially the younger generation, to climb mountains.
     JAC, which has long been leading Japan's mountaineering community, had 6,000 members at its peak time, but the number stood at about 5,300 as of May. Fewer young people are climbing mountains these days, so JAC's membership is therefore aging.
     JAC honorary treasurer Takaaki Narikawa, 72, said, ''The members' average age is 67, and we're going to lose our objective. We'd like to regain our vitality by soliciting young people again.''
     JAC recently tried to rejuvenate itself by naming younger members as executives. It picked as its new president Noboru Onoe, 66, a member of the Tokai branch, the most active among the 28 branches throughout the country.
     He proposed the creation of Mountain Day as JAC's new policy.
     In recent years, equipment and accommodation facilities have become ample, and quite a few people, including young ones, are trying to enjoy nature without belonging to any particular organizations.
     Climbers of Mt. Fuji in July and August this year reached about 300,000, falling short of the number the year before. But Mikio Kaminaga, former editor of Yama to Keikoku (mountain and valley) magazine, said many young people surprisingly took part in a festival in Karasawa on Mt. Hotaka, which stressed safe mountaineering.
     JAC wants ordinary mountain lovers to join the club, along with climbers of the Himalayas and other famous peaks by holding events to promote the enjoyment of mountaineering as part of the Mountain Day campaign.
     JAC celebrated its centennial by conducting exploratory trips by all branches to central dividing mountains in the Japanese archipelago and strengthened unity among its members, JAC officials said.
     Each branch has been conducting lessons about forestry building and those about mountaineering for boys and girls. The Hiroshima and Yamanashi prefectural governments have established their own mountain days.
     Mountain Day was proposed at a conference of International Year of Mountains in 2002, but it did not go anywhere. JAC will promote the proposal not only to mountaineering organizations but also to the Environment Ministry, the education ministry, the Forestry Agency and the Wild Bird Society of Japan.
     A concrete date for the day has not yet been determined, but a day in August is most likely because mountaineering is most active during the month.
     Narikawa said, ''Marine and mountain cultures together have been centerpieces of Japan's traditional culture. We really want to establish a holiday to think about our long associations with mountains.''
==Kyodo