Seventy-eight junior high school students evacuated from Miyake Island last year due to volcanic eruptions marked the start of their second semester off the island Sunday at Akikawa High School in Akiruno, western Tokyo.
The opening ceremony Sunday took place a year after the island's complete evacuation but also showed that very few want to continue on to Miyake High School, which is temporarily using facilities at Akikawa High.
Miyake High had 115 students in September last year but its numbers have dwindled to only 78, 65 of whom live in its dormitory.
Although only a few of the junior high students attending schools run by the Miyake village office want to attend Miyake High, but teachers and students at the school said they will try to persuade them to attend.
Miyake Island is part of the Izu island chain in the Pacific Ocean and is about 200 km south of Tokyo. All 3,800 of its residents were evacuated last September following volcanic eruptions on Mount Oyama.