Residents of Miyake Island will vote in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election July 3, the first balloting there since a major volcanic eruption forced a total evacuation five years ago.

Miyake is situated about 200 km south of Tokyo, but like numerous other islands in the Pacific it is under the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's jurisdiction.

Miyake's electoral management committee estimates that about 1,000 of the island's 2,777 official residents who are on the voter registration list have yet to return to the island. The committee is urging them to cast absentee ballots.

The last ballots cast on Miyake were for the June 2000 House of Representatives election. That August, the island's Mount Oyama underwent major volcanic activity and the metropolitan government issued an all-out evacuation order the following month.

Many islanders have returned since the evacuation order was lifted last February.

The election management committee this month sent all registered voters information packages containing a request form and instructions for absentee ballots, as well as information on five polling stations on the island.

The instructions urge voters to carry gas masks with them when they go to the polling stations, which may be moved to other locations if volcanic gas warnings are issued.

When the evacuation order was in place, polling stations were set up at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building in Shinjuku Ward and other places.

For this election, the committee considered setting up similar temporary polling stations at the metropolitan government office but gave up on the idea because taking ballot boxes to the island for vote counting on election day would have been difficult.