One snowy Sunday morning in late February, elderly men were awkwardly driving nails into half-finished furniture under the instruction of skilled carpenters at a factory in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture.
They were taking part in the Otoko no Mokko (Woodwork for Men) workshop launched Jan. 20 in the Haramachi district by doctors at Minamisoma Municipal General Hospital to aid the recovery from the March 2011 quake-tsunami.
The aim of the project was to draw male evacuees out of the temporary accommodations they've been stranded in for the past two years. Men have a stronger tendency to become socially isolated than women in such an environment.