Volcano
Mount Usu: 1 Live Camera in Japan — across Lake Toya
Mount Usu, refreshed every two minutes by the Japan Meteorological Agency. The view is from the east shore of Lake Toya, so the whole mountain fits in one frame.
What you can see
Mount Usu has erupted four times since 1910 alone, and each eruption left a new hill or a new crater. Showa-shinzan is one of them: a field that turned into a mountain over a few years. In the 2000 eruption people were evacuated from the hot-spring town on Lake Toya.
The camera looks across the lake from its eastern shore. With water in between there is nothing in the way, so the mountain fits end to end in one frame. There are masts on the summit knob, which give you a fixed marker in the picture. Dark trees fill the near frame.
The burn-in reads Mount Usu (Higashi-kohan). The agency always writes the volcano's name first and the observation point in brackets, so what is in the brackets is where the camera stands — here, the lake's eastern shore.
The camera belongs to the Japan Meteorological Agency and the picture changes every two minutes.
Cameras you can watch now: 1
All 1 are still images. Tap one to open it in the camera list.
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Sample August 2026
Mount Usu
Toyako, Hokkaido · Volcano · Nature
It has erupted four times since 1910, each time raising new hills and craters. The camera looks across Lake Toya from the eastern shore.
When to watch
Winter is the best of it. Once snow settles, the hills piled up by one eruption after another separate out in shadow.
A mountain seen across water wants the windless hours of the morning. On some days the surface turns to a mirror and the mountain doubles, top and bottom. Once wind gets up the surface breaks and goes flat grey.
Days are short in Hokkaido: in December it is already dark by the middle of the afternoon. Plan to open it about an hour earlier than you would on Honshu.
How the steam shows depends on temperature. The colder the day, the whiter and thicker it comes out; in summer the same amount looks thin.
If it isn't showing
The four cameras around it are gathered in Shikotsu-Toya. Nearby is Mount Tarumae, and lakes of the same making are in Volcanic lakes.
All of the agency's cameras are in JMA Volcano Watch Cameras, and the cameras of the same prefecture in Hokkaido.
Every volcano camera is in Volcano, and the article is What volcano cameras are looking at.
Where to find Mount Usu
Agencies publishing the cameras on this page
- Japan Meteorological Agency — volcano surveillance cameras (PDL 1.0) — Official site
The footage belongs to each agency. This site is an unofficial guide, and each sample frame was copied once per camera under that agency's terms of use.