Tens of thousands of people rallied near Japan's crippled Fukushima plant Sunday demanding an end to nuclear power as the nation marked the first anniversary of a disastrous quake and tsunami.

Memorial ceremonies and anti-nuclear demonstrations were held across the northeast region where an estimated 160,000 people were forced to evacuate after the monster waves triggered a meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

Around 16,000 people including citizens, refugees, activists, children and foreigners, gathered at a baseball stadium in Koriyama some 60 kilometres (37 miles) away from the plant.

Participants called for an end to nuclear energy in Japan and compensation for victims from operator Tokyo Electric Power, a year after the March 11 quake-tsunami sparked the world's worst atomic disaster in a generation.

"Our town has turned out to be another Chernobyl," Masami Yoshizawa, who ran a cattle farm in Namie, 10 kilometres (six miles) from the plant, shouted through a loudspeaker.

"We are in despair now, but I will get back my hometown even if it takes me the rest of my life," said Yoshizawa as he stood atop a wagon displaying pictures of his cows lying dead in their shed.

"I won't be beaten, no matter what. I will keep on fighting," he said.

A group of monks in brown and white robes chanted Buddhist sutras as activists carried banners reading: "We will never forget the March 11 Great Earthquake. We will never forgive the nuclear accident."

"Fukushima is being forgotten day by day," said Yumiko Ono, a 34-year-old graphic designer from Tokyo.

"If we don't raise our voices right now, another accident could happen. We want to tell the world that the crisis and the hardship is still going on," she added.

A moment of silence was observed at 2:46 pm (0546 GMT), the moment the 9.0-magnitude quake struck below the Pacific sea floor, sending monster waves crashing into Japan's northeastern coast.

The tsunami swamped cooling systems at the plant and sent three reactors into meltdown, spewing radiation into the environment.

Participants joined hands in silent prayer, as a siren echoed over the stadium. They then began marching through the city.

As night fell, more than 300 people gathered for a candlelight ceremony in front of local government offices in Fukushima city.

Organisers laid out candles in the form of a Chinese character of "kizuna", meaning bonds between people, while musicians, including popstar Mayo Okamoto, performed.

"I came here to make a wish; this tragedy will never happen again and I can go home as soon as possible," said Chieko Daito, 35, who was evacuated from Iitate after high levels of radiation were found there.

Public anger over the nuclear disaster and a growing distrust of the technology means the last of Japan's 54 reactors are expected to go offline within weeks.

But experts caution that resource-poor Japan -- already suffering from plunging exports as the global economy stutters -- can ill afford the rocketing cost of importing the extra fossil fuels it will now need.

Shinichiro Takiguchi, executive senior researcher at Japan Research Institute, said the shuttering of nuclear plants is not sustainable.

"Basically, the general consensus for the long term is reduce nuclear power" but not stop it, he said. "It's more reasonable to increase the use of other energy sources and gradually reduce nuclear while taking additional safety measures."

Worldwide, the disaster caused faith in the technology to stumble, but not collapse, and predictions that atomic power would have to be abandoned have proved wide of the mark.

"Fukushima did cause a slowdown in plans for new reactors and prompted a focus on an energy mix," said Colette Lewiner, an energy specialist at French consultancy Cap Gemini.

"But it wasn't the end of nuclear, contrary to what perhaps was being predicted after the accident."

Since the disaster France, Britain and the US have all declared they will press ahead with new reactors, while China and India remain on course for building scores more in coming years.

In 2011, about 60 countries approached the International Atomic Energy Agency about starting nuclear programmes, the IAEA said in February, including Vietnam, Bangladesh, United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Belarus.

Japan's nuclear disaster: a timeline
Tokyo (AFP) March 11, 2012 - As Japan marks the first anniversary of the quake-tsunami that triggered meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear plant, here are key developments in the worst atomic accident since Chernobyl in 1986.

- March 11, 2011: A 9.0-magnitude earthquake, the world's fourth-largest since 1900, strikes off Japan's northeast coast, causing a massive tsunami that destroys entire towns and villages along the Pacific coast and kills about 19,000 people.

The power supply and reactor cooling systems at the coastal Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, about 220 kilometres (135 miles) northeast of Tokyo are damaged, causing fuel inside to overheat and melt down.

The government orders the evacuation of residents living within three kilometres of the plant.

- March 12: Workers open a vent of a reactor, releasing pressure and radioactive fumes from inside.

A hydrogen explosion rips through a building casing reactor number one, but the reactor itself remains intact.

Work crews begin pumping sea water to cool the crippled reactors after fresh water coolant runs out.

The government orders the evacuation of residents within a 20-kilometre radius of the plant.

- March 14: Second explosion hits the plant, now at a building housing reactor number three. The reactor remains intact.

- March 15: Third explosion at the plant, this one at a building for reactor number four. The reactor remains intact.

- March 16: Emperor Akihito makes an emergency television address in a bid to reassure a worried public.

- March 25: Huge amount of highly radioactive waste water found inside four buildings with troubled reactors, hindering work to cool the overheating nuclear fuel.

- April 4: Operations start to dump 11,500 tonnes of radioactive water into the Pacific amid continued emergency cooling operations.

- April 12: Japan upgrades its assessment of the severity of the nuclear emergency to a maximum seven on an international scale -- equal with Chernobyl, although less radiation was released.

- May 5: Nuclear plant workers enter a reactor building for the first time since the explosion.

- May 11: Emperor Akihito visits evacuees from the radiation zone.

- May 23: A team of IAEA experts arrives to survey the plant and study Japan's plan to contain the accident.

- June 6: Japan more than doubles its initial estimate of radiation released from the plant in the week after the tsunami.

- July 9: Prime Minister Naoto Kan says the decommissioning of Fukushima will take decades, in the first government announcement of a long-term timeframe for the clean-up.

- August 30: Kan's government resigns. Finance minister Yoshihiko Noda becomes Japan's sixth prime minister in five years.

- September 19: Nuclear disaster minister Goshi Hosono addresses the IAEA general conference and promises to bring the reactors to cold shutdown by year-end.

- October 3: A government commission probing the accident estimates dismantling the Fukushima reactors will cost 1.15 trillion yen ($14.3 billion).

- November 12: Journalists visit Fukushima for the first time.

- November 17 and 29: Japan announces bans on sales of rice produced in the Fukushima region after samples show radioactive contamination well above legal limits.

- December 16: Japan says it has finally tamed the leaking reactors with the declaration they are in a state of cold shutdown.

- December 21: A roadmap produced by the government and plant operator Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) says that decommissioning reactors at Fukushima could take as long as 40 years.

- December 27: TEPCO asks for an extra $8.5 billion in aid from a government-backed fund to help it compensate families affected by the crisis.

- February 22, 2012: TEPCO says it is to cover 73,000 square metres (785,000 square feet) of the floor of the Pacific near the battered reactors with cement in a bid to halt the spread of radiation.

- February 24: Authorities say that some areas surrounding Fukushima will likely remain permanently off-limits.

- February 28: An independent panel investigating the nuclear crisis reveals a worst-case scenario sketched out by the Japanese government foresaw the end of Tokyo in a chain of nuclear explosions that would necessitate evacuating the city of 13 million people.

- March 5: Forty-two TEPCO shareholders say they are suing the company for a record-breaking $67 billion compensation.

- March 9: Government papers reveal the cabinet was warned of the possibility of meltdowns at Fukushima hours after the waves struck, but continued to deny the possibility in public for two months.