
46th Oyako Day Talk Live
Guest: Hirofumi Gomi
2026/5/23
Haunted house producer Hirofumi Gomi joins the 46th Oyako Day Talk Live, exploring fear, storytelling, and emotional experience.

Haunted house producer Hirofumi Gomi joins the 46th Oyako Day Talk Live, exploring fear, storytelling, and emotional experience.

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.
Winners of the 19th “OYAKO Award” The 2025 OYAKO Award has been presented to the parent-child duo of photographer Ittetsu Morishita, who spent nearly half a century documenting the lives of atomic bomb survivors, and his daughter Miho Morishita, who continues to carry on his mission. Ittetsu Morishita was the founder of the World Hibakusha Exhibition NPO, and for many years provided invaluable photographic archives to the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Hidankyo), which was later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. After his passing, Miho has devoted herself to preserving and sharing the prayers and messages for the future embedded in each of his photographs. Through…
Photo exhibition “6th Oyako Photo Festival 2025” ~There are as many stories of Oyako (parents and children)as there are Oyako ~ We will exhibit Oyako (parents and children) photos taken by professional photographers from Japan and abroad. Date: July 1st (Tue) – August 4th (Mon) Place: Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan (FCCJ) https://www.fccj.or.jp/ Opening Hours: 10:00 – 18:00 (closed on Sundays and public holidays) *When visiting, please inform the receptionist at the venue entrance that you have come to see the exhibition. Past “Oyako Photo Festivals” can be viewed here: https://oyako.org/project/matsuri-2024/ https://oyako.org/project/matsuri-2023/ https://oyako.org/project/matsuri-2022/ https://oyako.org/project/matsuri-2021/
Event period: May 1st to August 31th, 2025 Event location: Instagram and email Click here to view previous years’ essay content winners Oyakoday Special Award Cao Hagan Quilt Rug and Photo Picture Book “Taisetsu na Mono” “Yuna-chan is such a good girl, she doesn’t cause any trouble.” – by Yuna Furuya / age: 19 / Abiko City, Chiba Prefecture, Japan “Yuna-chan is such a good girl, she doesn’t cause any trouble.” Those words became a kind of curse. Born as the eldest daughter in a rural family, my reputation was tied to the reputation of the house. My education-focused parents took me to cram school before I even started elementary…
Event period: May 1st to August 31st, 2025 Event location: Instagram and email Special Bruce Osborn Award An original print Shadow of Love sukisukidaisuki9054 (instagram) A scorching hot summer day at the beach. No hat—so trying to make even a little shade!! That’s love. ❤️ CHOYA Grand Prize The CHOYA Gold Edition (Premium Umeshu with Gold Flakes) Look! We Made Footprints!! Motchan さん (instagram) To celebrate our child’s third birthday, we made a plate with their tiny footprints. Seeing the two of them having so much fun brought a big smile to my face CHOYA Prize CHOYA Plum Jelly Go for it! Izumi Murakami Parent and child gave it their all at…
Photo exhibition “5th Oyako Photo Festival 2024” ~There are as many stories of Oyako (parents and children)as there are Oyako ~ We will exhibit Oyako (parents and children) photos taken by professional photographers from Japan and abroad. Date: June 1st (Sat) – June 28th (Fri) Place: Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan (FCCJ) https://www.fccj.or.jp/ Opening Hours: 10:00 – 18:00 (closed on Sundays and public holidays) *When visiting, please inform the receptionist at the venue entrance that you have come to see the exhibition. Past “Oyako Photo Festivals” can be viewed here: https://oyako.org/project/matsuri-2023/ https://oyako.org/project/matsuri-2022/ https://oyako.org/project/matsuri-2021/
Event period: May 1st to August 31st, 2024 Event location: Instagram and email Click here to view previous years’ photo content winners Bruce Osborn Prize Original print and OYAKO photo book Miki Taira, Miyakojima, Okinawa Prefecture Husband who puts up with me without complainingDaughter who puts up with me even though she complains CHOYA Prizes CHOYA Gift Edition I Love My Mommy Yuka Kitawaki, Uda City, Nara Prefecture This is the first photo she took at the beach.When her mommy is in front of her, she gives us a special smile! CHOYA Prizes CHOYA Gold Edition Three generations Maiko Matsuno, Fuchu City, Tokyo Three generations with the victory lanterns at…
Event period: May 1st to August 31th, 2024 Event location: Instagram and email Click here to view previous years’ essay content winners OYAKO DAY Special Prize Kaohagan Quilt Rug and “Taisetsuna Mono” Photo Book You made this song while you were still inside of Mommy’s Belly – by Kengo Tanimoto / age: 67 / Higashiyamato City, Tokyo I started writing lyrics as a hobby and began posting them on a songwriting website that existed at the time. Around then, my daughter was in her last year of kindergarten. She would take the enka or pop songs I wrote and make up melodies on her own to sing them. Then one…
Period:2023/5/1 〜 8/31 Location:Instagram & Email Click here to view previous year’s photo contest winners Special Prize Bruce Osborn Award Original print & photobook All down for a swimming SAISHO Hitomi, Fuchū City, Tokyo This summer, the whole family was down in Okinawa where the sea is so inviting that we all took up snorkeling. Our 6 year old son took it all in stride: a natural swimmer, his first time snorkeling. CHOYA Prize The CHOYA Gold Edition NEWS IS… TSUCHIYA Eri, Yokkaichi City, Mie Prefecture News is we finished eating! so what are we waiting for? CHOYA Prize The CHOYA Gift Edition First time to the beach, whirling through…

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.