Daisuke Suzuki, a sake brewer, is hoping his product will help the people of his Fukushima Prefecture hometown, now uninhabitable due to the nuclear crisis, stay connected.
The March 11, 2011, megaquake and tsunami that led to the three meltdowns at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant caused the sea to wipe out his roughly 180-year-old seaside brewery and adjacent home, located in the town of Namie, about 6 km north of the crippled atomic complex.
"I thought I could never make sake again," Suzuki, 39, who relocated to Yamagata Prefecture, recalled thinking that fateful day.