Oyako Day 2026 is on July 26th!
Present to the Future
5/1 – 8/31
5/1 – 8/31
To be announced
6/1 – 6/30
「親子の日」エッセイコンテスト２０２５入賞作品 いたいのいたいの ありがとう」
「かぁかのあたま、いたいのいたいのとんでいけ！これでおねつさがるよ」
息子は冷蔵庫から熱冷ましシートを取り、私に貼ってくれた。
小さな椅子が冷蔵庫の前にあった。
For many years, Bruce Osborn’s OYAKO portraits have graced the covers of The Mothers’ Industry Newspaper. This month features father Rio Segan and his son Ka’imi, accompanied by a heartfelt message about a father’s unconditional love, presence, and the precious gift of watching his son grow.
The 51st Oyako Day Online Talk Live welcomes Yae, a “half-farmer, half-singer” and singer-songwriter. Join us as we explore her life rooted in farming and music, and how she nurtures what she has inherited and passes it on to the next generation.
Submissions for this year’s Oyako Day Photo & Essay Contests are now closed. Our heartfelt thanks to everyone who shared their photographs and stories, each revealing a unique expression of the bond between parent and child. The judging process will now begin, with the results to be announced soon.
The Oyako Day Photo Contest 2026 is now open through August 31. In addition to email submissions, entries are also accepted via Instagram.
The Oyako Day Essay Contest 2026 is now open through August 31. In addition to email submissions, entries are also accepted via Instagram.
Today is the final day to enter the Oyako Day Photo & Essay Contests! Thank you for all the wonderful photographs and heartfelt stories we’ve received this year. There’s still time to share your own special OYAKO moment—the deadline is August 31.
Bruce Osborn’s long-running Once Upon a Time exhibition at Adan in Sengakuji has been renewed with thirteen portrait photographs spanning his career in Japan. Enjoy the exhibition while dining at one of Tokyo’s welcoming neighborhood restaurants.
We are currently preparing information for the Oyako Day Super Photo Session 2026.
Please stay tuned!
Voting for the Oyako Award (Oyako Taisho) 2026 will begin soon. Which parent-and-child pair will receive your vote this year?
We will once again be holding the Oyako Matsuri Photo Festival this year. Details regarding the date, time, and venue will be announced as soon as preparations are complete.
Please stay tuned!
The Oyako Day Essay Contest is now accepting entries. Share your own parent-child story by August 31, 2026.
Bruce Osborn’s Once Upon a Time begins on note, tracing his journey from 1980s Japan to Oyako Day.
Voting for the Oyako Award has begun. Cast your vote for the parent-child pair whose story inspires you most.
We are pleased to announce the 7th Oyako Photo Festival — As Many Stories as There Are Families, once again to be held at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan (FCCJ). The exhibition will run from May 30 (Saturday) through June 26 (Friday), 2026.
Bruce Osborn exhibits Reverberation from his Flying series at the 51st JPS Exhibition in Tokyo and Kyoto. The Tokyo exhibition is being held at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum from May 27 (Wed) through June 5 (Fri).
It will be followed by the Kansai exhibition, taking place at the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art Annex from June 9 (Tue) through June 14 (Sun).
Haunted house producer Hirofumi Gomi joins the 46th Oyako Day Talk Live to explore fear, storytelling, and emotional thrills.
Join the Oyako photo session on May 5 at Studio AO. Apply by email to take part in this special Children’s Day event.
On May 4, a special talk event “Masaru & Bruce” takes place at Lanai during the Hayama Art Festival.
On May 3, Bruce Osborn’s rare film Spring 1982 screens at Lanai, followed by a DJ night during the Hayama Art Festival.
Bruce Osborn joins the 34th Hayama Art Festival with three exhibitions celebrating memory, objects, friendship, and Hayama life.
The 45th Oyako Day Online Talk Live welcomes Yumiko Minegishi, who has spent 35 years engaged in nature experience programs, the management and instruction of nature schools, and the training of educators. Through her independently developed Yushin Method, she promotes activities that connect local nature, people, and culture.
Munakatado’s couple joins the 44th Oyako Day Talk Live, sharing life, bread, and what we pass on to the future.
Bruce Osborn revisits his I Love Lucy series as THE SCOOTERS return after 30 years—reuniting in Hayama by the sea.
Naoki Sakai joins the 43rd Oyako Day Talk Live on Feb 22, sharing the power of “concept” behind iconic designs.
The first Oyako Day Online Talk of 2026 will welcome Tetsu Nakamura, who has supported Oyako Day in many ways—most notably through Abiko no Oyako Day. He will share his passionate vision and aspirations for Oyako Day 2026.
FCCJの展覧会委員長として長年携わってまいりました「干支展」が、 本年も日本外国特派員協会（FCCJ）にて開催される運びとなりました。
Shizuo “EC” Ishii joins the 41st Oyako Day Talk Live on Dec 24, sharing stories of culture, friendship, and life at 80
Bruce Osborn’s Nature Calls series will be shown in Higashikawa, Hokkaido, as part of the traveling Tokyo Photography Month exhibition.
Musician Temiyan joins the 40th Oyako Day Talk Live—sharing songs of life, love, and the mysteries of nature in his unique musical world.
Bruce Osborn joined the Numama Alley Exhibition at Zushi Biennale, showing Nature Calls in Numama with driftwood art and lightboxes.
We’re delighted to announce the 2025 winners of the Oyako Day Essay & Photo Contests—thank you for sharing your heartfelt stories.
The 39th “Oyako Day” Online Talk Live will feature writer Rika Yokomori as our special guest. In addition to her career as an author, Yokomori is the representative director of the Japan Adult Women’s Association, founder of the community salon Secret Lotus, and originator of the Yokomori-style Belly Dance Health Method. Her talk promises to be both inspiring and insightful. Don’t miss it!
Photographer Takashi Shikano joins the 38th Online Talk Live on Sept 24, reconnecting with Bruce Osborne after 35 years.
Bruce and Yoshiko will speak at BOUSAI ACTION 2025 on Aug 31 in Shinjuku, sharing lessons from Oyako Day & post-3.11 workshops.
The 2nd Hakone Art Festival is underway until August 31, featuring Bruce Osborn’s photo exhibition at the Hakone Town Social Education Center with 18 parent-child portraits – including celebrities and icons like Ultraman and Hello Kitty – alongside the interactive “OYAKO no KABE” workshop where families can share messages and memories.
On the morning of Sunday, July 27, starting at 9:00 AM, we will stream a special online program to celebrate OYAKO Day! This time, we’ll connect live with Hakone, where an exhibition is currently being held, and bring you real-time updates from the venue. Our guest will be Tetsu Nakamura, who has long been involved with OYAKO Day.
The OYAKO Day Promotion Committee is pleased to announce the recipients of the 19th “OYAKO Award 2025”, selected with reference to the many thoughtful votes and comments received through our online poll. This year’s award goes to photographer Ittetsu Morishita and his daughter Miho Morishita.
We’re excited to announce our participation as an invited artist in the 2nd Hakone Art Festival! Our featured work for this exhibition is titled “OYAKO de Happy Summer Day”, and the venue is the Hakone Town Social Education Center.
This year’s “OYAKO Day Abiko” was held, on Monday, July 21, coinciding with the national holiday Marine Day!
On Monday, July 21 (a national holiday known as Marine Day), “OYAKO Day” @ Teganuma Park 2025 will be held across multiple venues: Abista, Teganuma Park, and Kojōen! The event will feature a historical exhibition and roundtable discussion related to Taira no Masakado, a historical figure connected to Abiko. There will also be recycled material craft workshops and a parent-child photo session!
The Oyako Photo & Essay Contests are now open! Share your parent-child story through a picture or words. Deadline is the end of August—plenty of time to submit your entry. Details and links here!
Bruce Osborn’s latest photo exhibition “NATURe CALLS” is now on in Hayama, his seaside hometown. Running June 14–29, it explores nature’s quiet voices—like driftwood on the beach. Drop by and feel the message in every frame.
A photo exhibition sponsored by the Hayama Town Development Association will run from June 14 to 29 at the Hayama Town Development Hall (2F of the municipal library). Take a stroll and drop in!
It has been about 13 years since I served as the chairman of the curatorial committee of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan, but I have decided to retire from that position. I would like to inform you that a new staff member has planned an exhibition to mark my retirement. The exhibition will feature works selected from the vast collection of photographs that document the people and events I have encountered since coming to Japan in 1980, so please come and see them. Venue: Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan (FCCJ) Address: 5F Marunouchi Nijubashi Building, 3-2-3 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-0005 (same building as Tokyo Kaikan and the Tokyo…
Due to various circumstances, my exhibition for the Zushi Triennial Art Festival has been shortened to Oct. 28th and 29th. The title is go me “Nature Calls” and it is located in a building across from Zushi Hayama Station. Marine debris is inseparable from our daily lives and I hope it will be an opportunity to face this issue in a fun and creative way. While beachcombing, I see the beach as a microcosm of our society and to share the experience of reviving trash as art, will have a light box for taking close-up photos of it with your smartphone. https://www.zushi-art.com/2023-triennale-04/?fbclid=IwAR0hEd4ttn_mK5MXSw5lkdX3PNjbx2Q9LsubAax2_drlSaCtVO_IKqFjbJs
The broadcast will start at 14:00 (JST) on Saturday, July 24th! There is no charge for watching the event and we hope you will join us! Click HERE to watch the talk event The online talk event commemorating “OYAKO Day 2021” will be held with Misaki Kuroe as MC and five creators giving presentations on the theme of ~ Present to the Future ~. The speakers include manga artist Tetsuya Chiba, who created “Ashita no Joe” which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Kazuyoshi Nomachi, a documentary photographer who is highly acclaimed in Japan and overseas. Mr. Naotake Hibiya, a cross-sectoral connector working under the theme of connecting information…
The 2021 OYAKO Day Essay Contest, Photo Contest, and Oyako Award are now open for submissions. Other events include “Oyako Photo Matsuri“, a parent/child exhibition taken in several countries around the world by 26 photographers, and “Present to the Future“, a live-streamed talk show featuring Mr. Tetsuya Chiba, the cartoonist for “Ashita no Joe”, and other well-known creators. We are facing the challenge of the Covid-19 pandemic that is impacting all our lives in so many ways. The road to recovery takes time, but this period of isolation is an opportunity to reconnect with our families. The 4th Sunday of July is OYAKO Day and this year it will be…
PHOTOVILLE – New York City’s premier photo festival is coming to Los Angeles and my OYAKO photos will be one of the 50+ exhibitions. https://photoville.la/oyako-japanese-parents-children/ It’s a free event at the Annenberg Space for Photography from April 26 – 28 and May 2 -5. Hope to see you there! https://photoville.la
On May 4th Oyako I will be taking Oyako photos Star Wars with characters in Roppongi Hills. Click on HERE for information on the event and how to apply.
Oyako Day Book Giving display at T-Site in Daikanyama. http://real.tsite.jp/daikanyama/english/
In support of Oyako Day, TSUTAYA is corroborating with of other bookstores on a campaign asking parents to give their children books. Believing in their power to stimulate positive change and we hope these presents will serve as inspiration for the children. This book campaign is happening in 900 bookstores throughout Japan during the month of July.
Bruce Osborn will be taking photos of one hundred Oyako (parents and children) on Oyako Day. See details below on how to apply Photographs taken at other Super Photo Sessions can be seen at Oyako Photo Gallery SUPER PHOTO SESSION DATE: Oyako Day, July 22, 2018 APPLICATION DATES: Applications must be received by June 30, 2018 NOTIFICATION: Families that were selected will be contacted by July 13th. LOCATION: A photo studio in Tokyo (participants informed of exact location upon notification) PHOTO FEE: Free *Each family is responsible for their transportation to and from the studio. PHOTO: Each family will receive one free print. PRESS: Reporters are welcome on the session…
Send us an essay about your family. This contest is open to everyone and there is no fee for entering. Example subjects: “now we can laugh about it”, “an unbreakable tie”, “an unforgettable memory”, “now that I’m a parent, I finally understand”, “what a crazy family” DETAILS SEND 1. Your essay (include the title of the essay) 2. Your name, address, and age TO E-Mail: essay@oyako.org please include “Oyako Essay Contest” as your e-mail’s subject line Mail: OYAKO DAY 2018 Essay Contest HAYAMA Post office #13 240-0199, Japan APPLICATION DATES: Contest ends July 23, 2018 Prize-winning essays will be introduced on the website at a later date. JUDGES: Winning…
Send us your most unforgettable family photos! This contest is open to everyone and there is no fee for entering. Click HERE Deadline: July 23rd 11:00 am
TSUTAYA x OYAKO DAY In support of Oyako Day, TSUTAYA has initiated a campaign asking parents to give their children a book this month. Our hope is that the present will serve as inspiration for the child. We believe in the power of books to stimulate positive change.
Parent and child: the bond that is never really broken
During the filming of the movie, Oyako, present to the future, I was reminded of the strength of family bonds. In Japanese, we have the word Oyako combining the characters for parent and child into a single word. I’m impressed by the depth of meaning held in this one word, as if it was a monument to the lives we live. Maybe people these days think it’s just a word like any other. If only these people could participate in Oyako Day, then they’d see just how fine a word it is. Oyako Day has my wholehearted support.
The thread that ties parents and children feeds a loom of communication, weaving past to present and present to future. The information society has broadened the horizontal world but we’ve neglected the hopes of its vertical axis. Together, parents and children can change the world by being just what they should be, a true family. I hope people will think about that on OYAKO DAY.
To strengthen the bonds between parents and children, we must “Look one another eye to eye”,
“Rub each other shoulder to shoulder” and “Speak to each other”. I give my full support to Oyako Hi through the advancement of Oyako Gymnastics.
The relation between parents and children has been the source for everything dramatic since ancient times. We need to move this relation to an even richer place. For the future of all of us.
When I look at my son’s bad habits, I see my own. I’m sure it’ll happen to my son, the same way, when he notices his own child’s vices. This tie between parent and child, for better or for worse, endures.
We had our picture done at the Mainichi Newspaper “Oyako interview session”. When I saw the photogrpah, I was reminded that however much we get wound up in our worries over parenting, we still can’t ever get enough of our kids. So obvious, I suppose, but it took that picture to remind me.
Photographs open the heart on a page and then stay with us repeating the message. We go on living through one thing or another but the picture is there to call us home.
I hope the bonds between parents and children will grow forever deeper and that everybody will celebrate Oyako Day.
Friends, acquaintances, neighbors, bosses & underlings. There are a lot of different relations between people, but being parent and child is the most intimate and natural one. It’s a strange relation fraught with overboard spoiling and clumsy communications that bathes in deep trust.
When I saw the picture Bruce Osborn did for us, I was taken aback. I discovered things that made me reconsider what parents and children are all about. It was a wonderful thing to bring home. I think putting aside a special day, like Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, to rethink and restart our parent-child relation is a wonderful idea. I support Oyako Day.
Bruce Osborn’s Oyako photographs are about what ties people together. His present to us are the wonderful When I look through his pictures, I feel I’m in the Utopia of photography.
I hope Bruce will go on for years with Oyako Day which gives all of us a fresh opportunity to come closer to each other.
What I learned from my father and mother, I pass on to my two children.
There’s a set of habits and some ways of thinking, but what the family really passes on is love.
Nothing would bring me greater happiness than to see that later, when my two children have become parents themselves, they’ve fully understood this.
It’s an important message, which is why I support Oyako Day.
OTAKE Shinobu (actress and TV personality) source: wikipedia
The Oyako relation is my guide to life. By creating happiness at home, I hope that one day my children will feel the same way. This is the marvelous cycle of Oyako.
I fully support the Oyako movement.
Being too strict can make people hard-hearted, but too much coddling can ruin their lives.
When I’m training my daughter for wrestling and I push her hard, my wife Hatsue follows behind with words of affection.
Then, when I get home, I get my own dose of discipline.
“You call it training but it’s no better than bullying” she cries out, right in front of Kyoko, who completes the circle by saying, “Don’t be so mean to Papa.”
That’s how it is in the Hamaguchi Arena. It is the Oyako’s fate, to harmonize the strict and generous.
“OYAKO DAY” – I love you !!
Ultra Chichi (father):
We’ve heard about the Oyako movement on Nebula M78!! Oyako Day is not just about Earth, but can speak to the whole universe. Let’s make it so!
Ultra Haha (mother):
Ultraman Taro, along with the other Ultra Brothers and Ultra Warriors, are all my children. There are many kinds of Oyako, but no matter who we are, the parent and child relationship is special. That’s why it’s so wonderful to have Oyako Day so we can all celebrate it together. I give my full-hearted support to Oyako Day.
Ultraman Taro (son):
I’m 12,000 years old now, but whatever your age, you always have a mother and father. I am proud to be the son of Ultra Chichi and Ultra Haha. When I get to be 13,000 years old, I’d really like for Bruce to be there to take another Oyako photo of us. Let’s do a super photo session on Nebula M78! We’re all looking forward to it!
Oyako Day Heals the Illness of Separation
We have an expression in Japanese, 古住今来, which the dictionary translates as “in all ages” or “since antiquity”. If you look at the characters, you see “from of old until now”. This expression is not really hard to understand, but these days most of the young don’t know it. People are infected with tunnel vision. They see only dips and dabs from the great tide of humanity’s past and have lost the ability to see the world beyond their present.
“Who are we, where do we come from, where are we going?” This conjecture is forever shadowing us, our groups and organizations, our societies and governments; and through them, nature and all life on our planet. Bruce and Yoshiko’s group express the importance of this proposition in “OYAKO” and reveal it to people through this basic relation.
The “OYAKO DAY” project, based as it is on parents and children, whispers to us of the grandchildren who will come. Japanese already have the word OYAKO. Someday the ferment set off by Bruce’s team will distill a new word, running across all generations.
The Oyako relation is my guide to life. By creating happiness at home, I hope that one day my children will feel the same way. This is the marvelous cycle of Oyako.
I fully support the Oyako movement.
The pleasure of parents & children cooking together.
The profound strength a family’s taking meals together can give us.
Oyako Day is also a wonderful opportunity to bring families together around the dining table.
OYAKO ACROSS THE WORLD !
When I first heard about making a movie based on Bruce Osborn’s Oyako Photos, I thought it was a wonderful idea. When asked if I would like to do the script, it was a new challenge, but I was just thrilled.
Parents and children, are such fun to watch. That’s what the movies about. By fun, we’re talking about something like there being as many opinions as there are people. For anyone seeing the film, it should be the same thing. Each will carry away something different, and that’s the way it should be.
“OYAKO Movie” mixes documentary, interviews and drama, but without Bruce’s tremendous work shooting portraits of parents and children, it would never have existed. I believe that OYAKO will some day be an international word and that this day is not far off. I support OYAKO DAY with all my heart.
I became a parent 35 years ago, and 11 years ago, my child became a parent too. It all happens so fast. You’re totally involved in bringing them up healthy & strong, and the next thing you know they’ve got their own kids. We’re sad because it’s all gone by so quickly, but be a trooper: you’ve done a great service for our country by adding to the population.
When our children grow up and become parents themselves, they can finally begin to understand what a parent feels. The ties between parent and child are deep and enduring. Just look at us: we move the same, talk the same, laugh the same. But just when you’re thinking how alike you are, you see that they’re totally different. And then, an instant later, there they are looking just like you again! I keep thinking that no matter how you cut it, a frog makes frogs. Oyako Day continues to have my full support.
2015 will be the 13th year that Bruce Osborn organizes OYAKO Day. We may all take for granted that parents watch out for their children and that their children are grateful for the family they live in, but Oyako Day is a special moment for Parents & Children to take time together to think and talk about just how special they are to each other. It’s a story I try to tell with my music at Hirahara Sanchi concerts.
I am one of Oyako Day’s strong supporters.
From the moment of the newborn’s kickstart gasp, mother, child and father receive their title of “Oyako.” Oyako goes beyond blood ties. It’s a bond of the heart kept untarnished by unlimited liability. Bruce was drawn to this word, so special in Japan, and drawn so close that now the two are inseparable. Exposed in Bruce’s parents and children photographs, we feel the heartbeat of each and every family. Oyako are all so different, and yet in one thing they are all the same, their love. The pulse of Japan’s Oyako billows rhythmically. I know it can stretch out across the sea, calling all the world to renewed tomorrows. Let Oyako Day bring us all, here in Japan and other places throughout the world, together. Okāsan Shimbun will continue to spread the word about Oyako Day.
Of all the pictures ever taken of me, this has to be my happiest face.
Thank you Bruce, I think it will always be my favorite photo.
Oyako is amazing !!!
The relationship I have with my mother is one of the most meaningful relationships in my life; she really helped to shape the person that I am today. Being able to travel with her to Japan (the first time for both of us) was such a wonderful experience and commemorating the trip by having Bruce photograph us for the Oyako interview in Mainichi newspaper made it even more special. Not only do we now have Bruce’s wonderful images to help us remember the trip, but they also serve as a reminder – for us, and to many others in Japan – of how important the bonds between parents and their children are.
