The great Eastern Japan earthquake occurred on March 11, 2011, and many people lost their lives in a huge tsunami. Also, many photos got soaked and were largely destroyed. The tsunami took away not only many people’s lives, but also robbed many people of their memories.

Our CEO, Masayoshi Hirai, has held many photo exhibitions to date, and has spent a long time working in photography. He has with the questioning the difficulties with photographs, such as ease with which they get damaged, folded, get fingerprints on them, or discolor, as well as their environmental burden. He questioned whether these types of paper photo can be relied upon, and whether they are a waste of forestry resources.

He looked at these damaged photos, and realized that they are so weak and useless for recording moments and leaving behind memories for any period of time.

This led him to connect these ideas with the question of whether it is possible to create a photo in the same way as a bronze image, with a three-dimensional feel at times, and which simultaneously reproduces the image on a photo, leading to the creation of Millennium Photos.