A short drive from the Fukushima nuclear disaster site, novice farmer Takuya Haraguchi tends to his young kiwifruit vines under the spring sunshine, bringing life back to a former no-go zone.

Haraguchi was 11 years old when Japan's strongest earthquake on record struck in March 2011, unleashing a tsunami that left 18,500 people dead or missing.

The wall of water crashed into the Fukushima nuclear plant on the northeast coast, causing a devastating meltdown.