A samba dancer walks carefully in the snow after performing at the opening of a temporary shopping complex at the Shizugawa district in Minamisanriku town north of Sendai on February 25, 2012. Small shops that were destroyed in the disaster resumed their businesses in prefabricated buildings. To survive, towns such as Yamada, Miyako or Minamisanriku need local people, who are increasingly drifting away to the cities, to hang on. But they also need to revamp industries - fishing and farming - and bring and retain longer-term investment and jobs.
Tokio Ito welds on the first two fishing ships to be built since last year's tsunami destroyed the Kidoura ship building yard, on March 8, 2012 in Kesennuma, Japan. Numerous fishing towns had their equipment, factories, boats and livelihoods washed away. As a result large numbers of fisherman have turned to alternative industries, including laboring to clean the mountains of rubble left behind the tsunami, but most fight the uphill battle of rebuilding from scratch.