Volcano

Mount Yake and Niigata-Yakeyama: 2 Live Cameras in Japan

Mount Yake, on the Nagano–Gifu border, and Niigata-Yakeyama, in Niigata, have names close enough to be confused for one another. Both are continuously monitored volcanoes, and both are steaming.

What you can see

The names first. Yakeyama — burnt mountain — is a name used in several places, so the one in Niigata takes the prefecture as a prefix: Niigata-Yakeyama. Search for either and you get both, which is why the two cameras are on one page here.

Mount Yake stands just south of Kamikochi. Its 1915 eruption dammed the Azusa River and created Taisho Pond, where the drowned trees still stand in the water. Steam still rises near the summit.

Niigata-Yakeyama is a relatively young lava dome north of the Myoko group. Steam rises from the summit, and because a wide area carries no trees it reads paler than the mountains around it — a useful way to pick it out.

Cameras you can watch now: 2

All 2 are still images. Tap one to open it in the camera list.

• Sample August 2026

  Mount Yake

  Nagano / Gifu border · Volcano · Nature

  Standing just south of Kamikochi. The 1915 eruption dammed the Azusa River and created Taisho Pond. Steam still rises near the summit.

  JMA Still, every 2 min Open the official page →

• Sample August 2026

  Niigata Yakeyama

  Niigata · Volcano

  A relatively young lava dome north of the Myoko group. Steam rises from the top, and it looks paler than the mountains around it.

  JMA Still, every 2 min Open the official page →

When to watch

Morning. Both are peaks over 2,000m, and cloud tends to build before noon and hide the summit.

By season, steam shows best when it is cold. On a winter morning the vapour goes white at once, so plumes invisible in summer stand up as clear threads. In snow, the vents can stay bare and dark while everything around them turns white.

Both refresh every two minutes and are still images, so nothing shows at night.

If it isn't showing

South of Mount Yake is Mount Norikura; east of Niigata-Yakeyama is Midagahara. For another mountain where the steam itself is the thing to watch, see Kusatsu-Shirane.

What volcano cameras are for is explained in the article on volcano live cameras.

Where to find Mount Yake and Niigata-Yakeyama

• Nagano4

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.