Thirty-nine junior high school students evacuated from Miyake Island in September in the wake of volcanic eruptions attended a graduation ceremony Monday at a boarding school in Tokyo.
The ceremony at Akikawa High School in Akiruno, western Tokyo, marked the graduation of the students from three junior high schools on Miyake, part of the Izu island chain, they had been attending before the evacuation.
Eruptions and continuing volcanic activity forced all island residents to evacuate in September, with many temporarily settling in the Kanto region. The students have been living apart from their families and have been able to visit them only on weekends and school breaks.
In addition to the students, about 200 teachers and parents attended the ceremony held at the high school's gym.
On Miyake, almost all junior high school students would normally continue on to the island's sole high school, according to the Miyake village board of education.
This year, however, only 21 students of the graduating class will go on to the high school, currently being set up within the grounds of Akikawa High School, it said.
The rest of the students have opted to attend other municipal or private high schools after moving out of the dormitory to live with their parents in various parts of Tokyo, school officials said.
Also, among the 16 elementary school sixth-graders now living at the dormitory, 10 plan to keep studying there, the officials said. The entrance ceremony for incoming junior high school students is set for April 7. Starting from the new school year in April, kids will be allowed to commute from where their parents are living.
Around 180 elementary, junior high and high school students have enrolled in the village's schools for the new school year, about half the peak number immediately after the evacuation, according to the officials.