Marathon races in Fukushima Prefecture are drawing a growing number of runners looking to support the area's reconstruction from the March 2011 nuclear crisis.
In the town of Tomioka, where the government's evacuation order was partially lifted in the spring of last year, the number of people who signed up for a local marathon in late September roughly doubled from last year to about 1,300.
Despite poor weather conditions due to an approaching typhoon, participants ran along the seashore where anti-tsunami construction work is under way and near a school which reopened following the disaster.