Mayor Yuko Endo of the village of Kawauchi near the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant called Tuesday for some 2,600 people to return home now that the radiation situation has improved.
Kawauchi is the first local government in what had been part of the evacuation zone to ask its residents to return.
The mayor's nonbinding request was made in the Fukushima prefectural office.