page_title: Junko Tabei
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Junko Tabei / Early life
caption_attribution_description: English: The Wast face of Mount Chausu (Chausu-dake) in Mount Nasu, Japan.日本語: 那須岳の茶臼岳。西側の姥ヶ平より撮影。中央の噴気口が無限地獄。
context_page_description: Junko Tabei was a Japanese mountaineer, an author, and a teacher. She was the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest and the first woman to ascend the Seven Summits, climbing the highest peak on every continent.
  Tabei wrote seven books, organized environmental projects to clean up rubbish left behind by climbers on Everest, and led annual climbs up Mount Fuji for youth affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake.
  An astronomer had named asteroid 6897 Tabei after her and in 2019, a mountain range on Pluto was named Tabei Montes in her honour.
context_section_description: Junko Ishibashi was born on 22 September 1939 in Miharu, Fukushima, the fifth daughter of seven children. Her father was a printer. She was considered a frail child, but nevertheless she began mountain climbing at the age of ten, going on a class climbing trip to Mount Nasu. She enjoyed the non-competitive nature of the sport and the striking natural landscapes that came into view upon reaching the top of the mountain. Although she was interested in doing more climbing, her family did not have enough money for such an expensive hobby, and Ishibashi made only a few climbs during her high school years. 
  From 1958 to 1962, Ishibashi studied English and American literature at Showa Women's University. She initially planned on a career as a teacher. After graduation, she returned to her earlier passion for climbing by joining a number of men's climbing clubs. While some men welcomed her as a fellow climber, others questioned her motives for pursuing a typically male-dominated sport. Soon, Ishibashi had climbed all the major mountains in Japan, including Mount Fuji.
  When she was 27, Ishibashi married Masanobu Tabei, a mountaineer she had met during a climbing excursion on Mount Tanigawa. The couple eventually had two children: a daughter, Noriko, and a son, Shinya.
caption: The volcanic Chausu Peak of Mount Nasu
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot A530", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Paint Shop Photo Album v5.22", "Image DateTime": "2007:10:23 20:22:14", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "227", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "2954", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "10841", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/320", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:10:21 11:02:12", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:10:21 11:02:12", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "133/16", "EXIF ApertureValue": "159/32", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "11/4", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "80", "EXIF FocalLength": "29/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2063", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1375", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "2592", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "1944", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "2789", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "11520", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "81000/7", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Landscape"}