TOKYO, July 21 (UPI) -- Four years after being evacuated from their homes due to volcanic activity, residents of Japan's Miyake Island will be allowed to return next February.
Sukeyasu Hirano, Miyake village head, said his office would lift the evacuation order in February, allowing residents to return home based on their own assessment of the situation, the Mainichi Shimbun reported Tuesday.
He said the reasons for his decision were that volcanic activity had appeared stable for more than a year, and some 70 percent of evacuees had expressed the desire to return home despite the continuing volcanic gas emissions. The gas, containing toxic sulfur dioxide, rises from the crater of Mt. Oyama.
The 3,200 Miyake residents who were evacuated following major volcanic eruptions in June 2000 are now living in 18 prefectures across Japan. About 2,000 would return home next year, Miyake officials said.
