The Hida Mountains (飛騨山脈, Hida Sanmyaku), or Northern Alps (北アルプス, Kita Arupusu), is a Japanese mountain range which stretches through Nagano, Toyama and Gifu prefectures.
William Gowland coined the phrase "Japanese Alps" during his time in Japan, but he was only referring to the Hida Mountains when he used that name.
Although it was originally thought that no glaciers existed in East Asia south of Kamchatka, recent research has shown that three small glaciers still survive in Mount Tsurugi and Mount Tate owing to the extremely wet climate of the Hokuriku region allowing for very heavy snowfalls on the high peaks.
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