Hong Kong's travel warning for most of Japan remains at the second-highest level, though Japan has raised the alert level at the stricken nuclear plant from four to five on a seven-point international scale for atomic incidents.
Japan's lifted alert gave fresh weight to demands by many lawmakers to change the city's warning status from red, meaning 'adjust travel plans' and 'avoid non-essential travel', to black, the top level, meaning 'avoid all travel'. They said the government should work better to guarantee people's safety.
Hong Kong has a black alert only for Miyagi, Fukushima, Ibaraki and Iwate prefectures.
Undersecretary for security Lai Tung-kwok defended the warning again yesterday.
Lai said Japan's change of alert level 'only indicated what had happened', and that it did not change the fact that the degree of radioactivity in places other than the four prefectures remained normal.
The Hong Kong government is urging its residents to leave Tokyo because of the worsening situation at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.