There have been renewed discussions recently of the importance of bonds between people. Therefore, I tried photographing the smallest unit for interpersonal bonds: two people. I first started with married couples. It is no easy task for a husband and wife to stay together for many years, both working and combining their strengths in creating a family. It seems to me that it is necessary for a couple to experience the same struggles and to work equally in their efforts.

The next unit of two is brothers. Since they were raised together as children, a parents fervently hope that even as adults, they will always get along, help each other, and live out their own respective lives.

Then there is the unit of two made up of a parent and child. Especially between a mother and child, I feel the existence of a mystical relationship. A mother's complete and total love for her child becomes a precious gift that he or she will cherish in later life. The couples who have struggled together, brothers who are also friends, mother and child. I believe that in their images, we see their "ties that bind."

I think it is our duty to spread ties such as these throughout Japan, as embodied in the phrase "Japan with one heart," and to spread them throughout the world.