The central government is covering the demolition costs for disaster-hit homes in Fukushima Prefecture, but 70 percent of the razing requests have not been completed.

The Environment Ministry plans to revise the procedures for handling demolition requests because the situation could further prevent residents from returning to the radiation-tainted areas.

As of Jan. 8, 5,780 applications — or over 70 percent of the 7,670 demolition requests — had not been processed.