Six years after Fukushima nuclear disaster, residents trickle back to deserted towns

A house damaged by the March 11, 2011 tsunami is seen at a residential area in an evacuation zone near Tokyo Electric Power Co's (TEPCO) tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Namie town, Fukushima prefecture, Japan, February 28, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai

NAMIE, Fukushima (Reuters) - A truck occasionally whizzes past the darkened shops with cracked walls and fallen signs that line the main street of Japan's mostly deserted seaside town of Namie.

Workers repair a damaged home nearby, and about 60 employees busily prepare for the return of former residents in the largely untouched town hall. Not far away, two wild boars stick their snouts in someone's yard, snuffling for food.