KOFU -- Workers began dismantling on Wednesday morning a dome on a radar station atop Mount Fuji and were expected to finish the job within a day, weather permitting, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
The agency used the radar for typhoon detection until November 1999. It has been sitting on the summit of the 3,776-meter mountain since 1964.
Its functions were replaced by the agency's Himawari satellite and a new radar in the same area.
The dome -- measuring 9 meters in diameter with reinforced plastic panels attached to an aluminum alloy frame -- is to be given to the city of Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi Prefecture, at the foot of the mountain, according to the agency.
City officials said they plan to restore the dome by next September and use it as a facility for meteorological education.