Abstract Fission-track (FT) thermochronology was applied to the Atotsugawa Fault in the Hida Metamorphic Belt, central Japan, to detect any ancient thermal anomaly associated with fault displacements. Apatite and zircon grains from gouges ( c . 2 cm wide) and fractured rocks ( c . 10 cm) at six fracture zones within a 15 m-wide fault zone were dated. Most of the zircon (120–150 Ma) and apatite (44–60 Ma) ages agree well with emplacement ages for the granites that intrude the Hida Belt. The discordance in zircon and apatite FT ages is interpreted to reflect cooling due to regional uplift and associated erosion. A thermal anomaly was identified at one of the gouge zones that showed an exceptionally young apatite age ( c . 32 Ma) with an unimodal FT length distribution. It presumably indicates secondary heating induced by frictional slip during an earthquake, possibly giving a younger limit of the initiation of the activity in the Hida Belt.