The National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) is a corporation of inter-university research institutes in Japan including the Institute of Molecular Sciences (IMS) and the National Astronomical Observatory (NAOJ). Each year, NINS presents the Young Researcher Award to outstanding early-career researchers affiliated with or who have collaborated with its institutes. In 2025, Dr. Akitoshi Shiotari was selected as an award winner for his exceptional achievements in single-molecule photochemistry, thanks to his strong collaboration with several research groups at IMS. The award ceremony took place in Tokyo, where NINS president Prof. Maki Kawai presented the winners with the award certificate. For the award lecture especially targeting high school students, Dr. Shiotari and the other winners introduced their latest research in an easy-to-understand manner, which was broadcast via web services (in Japanese). This gave the audience an opportunity to learn about the excitement and challenges of cutting-edge natural science and inspired the next generation of scientists.