Internet giant Google has launched a virtual tour through the nuclear ghost towns near Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.

Visitors to Google's online mapping site can now take a tour through the deserted streets of Namie, one of the towns abandoned after the Fukushima meltdowns spewed radioactive fallout across a large area.

The site reveals streets overgrown with weeds, and time appears to have stood still since Namie's entire population of 21,000 people was evacuated two years ago.

Half of the town on the Pacific coast sits within the 20-kilometre evacuation zone around the nuclear plant, which was crippled by Japan's 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

The tsunami knocked out the plants cooling systems and three reactors melted down as a result.

Writing for Google, the town's mayor Tamotsu Baba said he hoped the images of Namie would show future generations the disaster.

"I hope these street views will show the people of future generations what the great earthquake and nuclear disaster brought," he said.

"We need many years and many people's cooperation to rise again from the nuclear crisis.

"We will never give up on getting back our hometown."

The natural disasters killed nearly 19,000 people, including those whose bodies are yet to be recovered.

Some parts of the town were swamped by the waves of March 11 and houses and other buildings damaged by the water can be clearly seen. But many buildings remain intact.

The nuclear catastrophe is the worst the world has seen since the 1986 disaster at Chernobyl.

No-one is officially recorded as having died as a direct result of the radiation, but scientists warn some areas may remain contaminated for decades, while those most heavily polluted could be uninhabitable forever.

ABC/AFP