Nearly 5½ years after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, a fan club was launched last week with an ambitious membership goal: gain 200,000 members by 2020 and boost the region's products in the process.

Called Team Fukushima Pride, the project's fans aren't devoted to a pop idol group, but instead the local specialties of Fukushima Prefecture.

Already it has the support of organizations such as Yahoo Japan Corp. and Synergy Marketing Inc., which runs the fan club for professional baseball team Tokyo Yakult Swallows.