A circus troupe led by Keiichi Nishida, founder of a street performance and circus training institution in Midori, Gunma Prefecture, has embarked on a tour to call for a nuclear-free Japan.

Nishida's school had to be shut down temporarily to avoid the radioactive fallout emitted by the core meltdowns that wrecked the Fukushima No. 1 power plant in 2011, even though it was 170 km away.

So the 70-year-old performer decided to hook up a cart to his bicycle and take his five-member troupe across Japan to raise awareness of the dangers of atomic power.