Tokyo mayor signals willingness for nuclear waste site survey on Minamitori

TOKYO - The mayor of a Tokyo village expressed a willingness to allow the government to conduct a survey on the suitability of Minamitori Island, which is located at the easternmost edge of the country's territory in the Pacific, as an underground disposal site for high-level radioactive waste.

"The decision (on whether to conduct the survey) should be made responsibly by the government," Ogasawara Mayor Masaaki Shibuya said during a community meeting on Hahajima Island, part of the Ogasawara chain. Another meeting was held later in the day on Chichijima Island.