While much of the media’s attention has turned away from events in Japan, millions of people are still feeling the after-effects of March’s devastating earthquake and tsunami.

Japanese video journalist Toshi Maeda gives Dateline an insider’s view of the daily challenges still facing residents, including his own wife and young daughter.

Near the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, he finds ghost towns, where those remaining struggle with little work, money or food. Close-knit families have been left divided by the disaster as members move elsewhere to try and make a living.

One family that Toshi meets, the Sakuuchis, also don't know how the radiation, at 14 times the normal level, will ultimately affect them and the youngest member of their family, four-year-old Honoka.

Contamination concerns too are affecting agricultural businesses hundreds of kilometres away, and even daily food shopping in Tokyo has become an ordeal… all with a backdrop of discontent over a lack of government transparency and action.
 
WATCH - See the inside story of Japan’s continuing struggle.

INTERACTIVE - Our interactive guide has more background to the nuclear emergency and the potential effect of radiation on health and food.

PHOTO GALLERY - Look through some of the images that made the headlines following March's earthquake and tsunami.

REPLAY - Look again at Toshi's original report from March on Japan's Catastrophe, where he visited areas affected by the quake and tsunami, and talked about the effect on his own family.

ON SHAKY GROUND - Next week, Dateline returns to the Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand, where video journalist David Brill finds communities still torn between despair and hope six months after the disaster. Click here to watch his story.

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Photo (Fukushima nuclear plant): AAP

On air: 21st August 2011