A Japanese man has gone missing while climbing Nepal's Mount Manaslu, the world's eighth-highest peak, it was learned Saturday.

The man is believed to be Hirotaka Onodera, of Miyagi Prefecture and a member of the Tokyo University of Agriculture Alpine Club.

A search is underway for Onodera, 23, who apparently slipped and fell near the mountain's summit on Oct. 7.

"The information we have is that the climber was taking pictures of a fellow climber after successfully climbing Mount Manaslu when he slipped and went missing," said Tourism Ministry official Gyanendra Shrestha.

Repeated aerial searches of the mountain in western Nepal carried out in the past week failed to find him, Shrestha added.