Farmer Naohiko Kikuchi tried his hand at bouldering on Miyakejima Island at the end of October and found that the facility has rewarding potential.
"I can try (climbing boulders) at the level that suits me and I can feel a sense of achievement," Kikuchi, 33, said.
Miyakejima's tourism industry was damaged by the eruption of Mount Oyama in 2000, causing the entire island about 180 km south of Tokyo to be evacuated until 2005. As the island's population plummeted to 2,700 from about 3,800, the number of tourists plunged from some 79,000 in 1999 to about 34,000 in 2014.