A rising number of young people who had left their hometowns in Tohoku before the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami wrecked the region have started returning to support its recovery.
Mamoru Kondo, 27, is one of many young Tohoku natives who had moved to urban areas elsewhere but, after the March 11, 2011, catastrophe, realized they were gradually losing their roots. Raised in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, he returned to the devastated coastal town after spending a decade in Aichi Prefecture.
After graduating from a university in Aichi, Kondo landed a job with a company that markets eyewear and lived in Nagoya. Since he felt settled there, returning to see his parents once a year was his only remaining link to his hometown.