In late 2000, monitoring stations noticed a rapid increase in the number of low-frequency quakes around Mount Fuji, indicating that magma was on the move again underground, and that Fuji is still an active volcano. Japan's national government and the governments of municipalities located around the mountain were concerned, and in 2001 they asked volcanologists to produce a “hazard map” to estimate the damage that could occur during another major eruption. The scientists reported that if volcanic activity on the scale of the Hoei eruption of 1707 were to happen, in the worst-case scenario, flows of lava would sever the Tomei Expressway and the Tokaido Shinkansen bullet train line—two vital arteries supporting the Japanese economy. Volcanic ash would rain down on all of Greater Tokyo. The possible total monetary loss was estimated at up to 2.5 trillion yen.

The report spurred Japan's national government and the municipal governments near Fuji to begin drawing up evacuation plans and organizing disaster response drills. Volcanic activity research institutes decided to upgrade their monitoring systems for Mount Fuji, and to establish a central database at the Volcanic Observations and Information Center of the Japan Meteorological Agency to hold all monitored data gathered up to that time. These are some of the ways Japan is developing an early warning system to forecast Fuji's next eruption.