Mobicom, the largest mobile phone carrier in Mongolia and a subsidiary of Japan’s KDDI, is facing scrutiny and possible compensation claims in Mongolia after a vehicle carrying its executives caught fire and started a blaze that burned through a nature preserve on the Mongolia-China border.
About 80% of the preserve, which is in eastern Mongolia and 5,870 square kilometers in size, is estimated to have been burned, according to local media reports.

Mobicom CEO Yasuhiro Ochi and two other executives were visiting the area on Oct. 8, when one of their vehicles caught fire and started the blaze. KDDI owns 98.84% of Mobicom.

The fire rapidly spread toward China’s Inner Mongolia, carried by strong winds and made worse by drought conditions. Chinese authorities deployed 3,400 personnel, including firefighters and local emergency crews, to contain the cross-border fire, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported.

The blaze was contained on Oct. 12 and extinguished on Friday, said TenGer Times, a Mongolian newspaper, quoting local government sources.

Numrug National Park, where the fire occurred, was designated a “strictly protected area” in 1992. It has a unique landscape with a diverse range of animal species, including moose, red deer, wild boar, brown bear and the Eurasian otter, and is home to 263 species of birds and 24 species of fish. It is a main grazing ground of the Mongolian gazelle, some of which have already crossed into China, according to the newspaper.

Mongolian Minister of Justice and Internal Affairs Temuulen Ganzorig said last week that an investigation is underway, and those responsible for the wildfire will be required to pay compensation for the damage.

“Measures will be taken to hold officers of the border administration and employees of Mobicom Corporation accountable and to recover the damages,” the minister said. “A two-day entry permit had been issued. It appears they accidentally started the fire while leaving.”

Masato Shinoda, professor emeritus of climatology at Nagoya University who has studied Mongolia’s climate, said the Mongolian Plateau, which includes Mongolia as well as parts of Inner Mongolia and Russia, is known for its wildfire-prone conditions. Grassland fires often occur in spring, when snow covering the grasslands melts, exposing dry vegetation, and in autumn, when strong winds and dry grass make fires more likely to spread.

Even so, the latest fire, which burned nearly 5,000 sq. km in just eight days, is “quite huge,” he said.

“Our research based on satellite data has shown that about 13,000 sq. km of land was burned by wildfires per year across the Mongolian Plateau between 2001 and 2021,” he said. “That means the burned area of the latest event may be among the largest over that period.”

Climate change and resulting extreme droughts have generally elevated wildfire risks, though it remains unclear at this point whether or how they played a role in the Numrug fire, he added.

Mobicom’s handling of the incident has caused some concern in the country of 3.5 million people, where the company serves more than 1.8 million mobile subscribers. Initially, the firm released a statement explaining that the managers were in the border region for work related to expanding the mobile carrier’s network coverage. Mobicom later released a prerecorded video on Facebook, in which CEO Ochi apologized to the Mongolian people.

“I understand that related agencies will assess the cause and the extent of the damage,” he said in Japanese. “We will fully cooperate with the investigation and fulfill our corporate social responsibility, and will take necessary measures. I understand everyone’s concerns. We deeply regret the environmental damage caused and apologize to the Mongolian people.”

Mongolian media have questioned whether the convoy had obtained proper permission from the authorities to enter the strictly restricted area.

KDDI told The Japan Times that three Mobicom executives, including Ochi, had visited the border area to perform tests of the 4G telecommunications network, and that the firm had “notified the border security authorities of their entry beforehand.”

In its Mongolian-language statement, the company said that it had received “official permission” to enter the area.

“We recognize the gravity of the fire and the enormous damage inflicted on the Mongolian natural environment in relation to the activities of Mobicom, our group company,” KDDI said in an email response to questions, apologizing to the Mongolian people, customers and stakeholders.

“We will fundamentally review our field testing protocols and safety management measures, and will make all-out efforts to prevent recurrence.”

Published Date:2026-10-20