A Japanese park famous for ¡°snow monkeys¡± soaking in hot springs will cap daily numbers after a surge in visitors and cases of bad behavior including bathing with the animals, an official has said.

Nestled in a valley with an altitude of 850 meters (nearly 2,800 feet) in the central Nagano region, Jigokudani Yaen-Koen is inhabited by wild Japanese macaques that regularly bathe in its hot volcanic spring waters.

On frigid, snowy winter days, ¡°many monkeys are seen soaking in the hot spring, some for hours on end,¡± its website says.

Touted as a ¡°monkey paradise,¡± the park is the ¡°world¡¯s only place¡± to offer such a sight, its website claims.

Recent years have seen the number of tourists ¡ª the vast majority of them non-Japanese ¡ª rise sharply, sometimes totaling 3,000 to 4,000 a day, a park official said Friday, declining to be named.

¡°We have been seeing incredibly long queues of visitors waiting outside the ticket booth. To ease that, we will have them buy tickets in advance¡± online, the official said.

The shift toward an online booking system will start in August, with a possible cap of 2,000 people a day.

As the number of tourists snowballed, so did instances of bad behavior, such as trying to feed or touch the monkeys.

Some have even ¡°tried to bathe¡± together with the animals, the official said.

About 42.7 million tourists flocked to Japan in 2025, an all-time high, as the weak yen boosted the appeal of the ¡°bucket list¡± destination.

Complaints of overcrowding have grown in hotspots like Kyoto, with some disrespectful tourists accused of harassing kimono-clad geisha performers in their frenzy for photos.

In February, a cherry blossom festival in Fujiyoshida, boasting a highly Instagrammable view of Mount Fuji, was canceled after residents complained that their ¡°quiet lives¡± were under threat.

The city in central Japan complained of chronic traffic jams, cigarette butts tossed, trespassing and even people defecating in private gardens.