Nearly a month after the U.S. began flying some citizens out of Japan to safe havens in Asia and elsewhere, the U.S. State Department late Thursday lifted the voluntary evacuation statute for U.S. government personnel dependents that it set in place as the Fukushima nuclear crisis unfolded following the March 11 disasters.

"The situation at the (Fukushima Daiichi) plant is dramatically different today than it was on March 16," according to a new State Department travel advisory note, superseding the previous version issued...