When caregiver Kazutoshi Fujimoto first visited the town of Yamamoto, Miyagi Prefecture, he was volunteering because he had heard the recovery from the March 2011 quake and tsunami was going slow.

The decision turned out to be a life-changing one because it led him to join the Shinto priesthood. He now serves at a celebrated shrine in the town.

Fujimoto, 45, had lived in Miyagi since his university days. He was working as a caregiver in Natori, near Sendai, when the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami devastated the region in March 2011.