Reconstruction following the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in the Tohoku region is only halfway complete, with local farmers still facing the urgent task of securing labor.
Meanwhile, the restoration of farmland damaged by the tsunami has largely been completed in many areas, excluding Fukushima Prefecture, helping the resumption of operations and creating new jobs.
Masashi Takahashi, who at the time of the disasters was the head of the former Minamisanriku agricultural cooperative, now the JA Shinmiyagi agricultural cooperative, decided to reconstruct farms damaged by the tsunami after strawberry and other farmers had told him that they had to give up their businesses.