The government on Friday closed a special office set up to oversee the rehabilitation of more than 15,000 people evacuated from the area around Mount Usu in southwestern Hokkaido after experts said volcanic activity had almost ceased.
The office, set up here in late March, mainly comprised officials from the Construction Ministry and the National Land and National Police agencies.
During its final meeting, staffers confirmed that they would reassemble should volcanic activity in the Mount Usu area increase again.
Officials said that in the event of a major eruption, roughly 70 percent of the 4,000 officials who had staffed the office could get together within six hours.
Abuta Mayor Yoshio Nagasaki asked the central government to continue to actively support the stricken area, noting that efforts to restore and rebuild had yet to gather steam.
As of Friday, evacuation orders remained in effect only for 378 people living within a 500-meter radius of the crater in the nearby town of Abuta.
Nagasaki earlier said it will take longer to lift the evacuation order covering that area, which is considered a high-risk site.
The town of Sobetsu, however, used the occasion of the office's closure to declare an all-clear for its tourism industry. The town is a stopover for visitors to Showa Shinzan, another volcano nearby.
Mount Usu erupted March 31, prompting the evacuation of up to 15,267 residents in early April.
The Coordinating Committee for Prediction of Volcanic Eruptions, an advisory body to the head of the Meteorological Agency, announced in July that volcanic activity on the mountain will soon cease.