Daisuke Suzuki is helping by doing what he does best as life tentatively returns to normal for the devastated fishing communities of Fukushima Prefecture: making sake. The tōji (sake master) and his family were lucky to escape with their lives when a huge earthquake and tsunami devastated the area in March 2011, killing about 18,000 people and causing meltdowns at the nearby nuclear plant. In the town of Namie, the disaster obliterated the old port of Ukedo and its local fishing industry, as well as the Iwaki Kotobuki sake brewery that Suzuki's family has owned for five generations.

Ozawa, H. (2023, October 5). Fukushima sake brewer arms shattered Japanese fishing community. Manila Bulletin, p. 7.