Parts of Aokigahara are very dense, and the porous lava rock absorbs sound, contributing to a sense of solitude that some visitors attribute to the forest.

Mammals include the Asiatic black bear,[6] Dsinezumi shrew, small Japanese mole,[7] greater horseshoe, greater tube-nosed and eastern long-fingered bats,[1] mice and brown rats,[1] Honshū sika deer, red fox, masked palm civet, wild boar, Japanese badger, dormouse, dwarf flying squirrel, hare, macaque, marten, mink, raccoon dog, serow, shrewmole, squirrel and weasel.

[10] The forest is composed of a variety of conifers and broad-leaved trees and shrubs, including Chamaecyparis obtusa,[10] Cryptomeria japonica,[11] Pinus densiflora and P. parviflora, Tsuga sieboldii, Japanese maples (including Acer distylum, A. micranthum, A. sieboldianum and A. tschonoskii), Betula grossa, Chengiopanax sciadophylloides (or Acanthopanax sciadophylloides or Eleutherococcus), Clethra barbinervis, Enkianthus campanulatus, Euonymus macropterus, Ilex pedunculosa, I. macropoda, Pieris japonica, Prunus jamasakura, Quercus mongolica var.

incomptum,[12] Corydalis incisa,[10] Erigeron annuus,[12] Geranium nepalense,[12] Kalimeris pinnatifida,[12] Maianthemum dilatatum,[10] Oplismenus undulatifolius[10] and Reynoutria japonica (syn.

[8] Additionally, the forests are outlined with many small annual and perennial species that self-sow along the sunnier fringes, along with young sprouts of the larger trees and shrubs.

[21][22] However, the history of suicide in Aokigahara predates the novel's publication, and the place has long been associated with death; ubasute may have been practiced there into the nineteenth century, and the forest is reputedly haunted by the yūrei of those left to die.

In late 2017, popular American YouTuber Logan Paul, who had earned over 15 million subscribers to his channel by 1 January 2018, uploaded a video in which he and several companions visited Aokigahara in order to document and explore the forest's supposed "creepy" qualities.

[23] One member of the group could be heard saying they did not "feel good" as they viewed the corpse, to which Paul asked, jokingly, if this person had "never stood near a dead guy before".

"[23] Aokigahara was the subject of a BBC Radio 4 production, broadcast 10 September 2018, in which four poets traveled to the region to write and record poetry.

[26] Australian psychedelic rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard were originally named "Sea Of Trees" after Aokigahara.