Congratulations, New Students! (2025 Entrance Ceremony)

2025 Entry Ceremonial Address from the President (for undergraduate students)

Welcome to Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.

Let me speak in English. I know that most of you will major in a language other than English. And I can tell you that your proficiency in that language will become an advantage throughout your life. But if you lack proficiency in English, that is a disadvantage in the global society. No matter what your major is, all of you should be highly proficient in English.

I will start with a few questions. Actually, I will ask you questions throughout my speech. My intention is to make you think of how to make the most of your four or more years in this university.

Why did you decide to study at a university? And why did you choose this university in particular?

I would like you to think over such questions and be aware of your own choice.

Why? Because making choices is probably the most difficult part of life and you will have to make difficult life choices and career choices a number of times throughout your life. Especially because we are living in a difficult era.

People say that we are living in the age of VUCA: ��V�� ��U�� ��C�� ��A.�� These four letters stand for volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity.

I am not only thinking of instability in international relations: wars in Ukraine and Palestine, uneasy relations between China and the United States. Take a longer-term perspective. Is the global food supply sustainable? Is the energy supply sustainable? How about the climate? Is Japanese society sustainable? If we are losing sustainability, we have to change our society. We have to change our ways of living. Therefore, our future is uncertain and ambiguous. Our path towards the future is volatile and complex. This is what people mean by saying that we live in the age of VUCA.

If we are living in such a volatile and uncertain age, the life paths and career paths taken by our predecessors will not be available to us. If you cannot simply follow your predecessors, you will have to discover your own path and make your own choices. You will probably ask your parents, friends, and teachers for advice. But you have to be responsible for your own choices. That is why you should always be aware of the choices and decisions you make.

And if the future is so volatile, you will have to make life choices and career choices more than once or twice throughout your life. You will have to be flexible. You will have to be flexible enough to change your prior choices later.

Let me give you another question here. How can you prepare yourself to make choices independently with confidence? What do you think you need?

You may think otherwise, but I think that you should know the options available to you beforehand. I suggest that you be open-minded. You should broaden your horizons and open your mind to various ideas to know what options are available to you.

To sum up what I have said so far, I believe that you should know your options, make your own choice, but be ready to change that prior choice later to pave your way through the age of volatility and uncertainty.

Let me move on to another question. How can you develop such a determined yet flexible mindset?

I will give you three suggestions.

Firstly, how about meeting and communicating with people from diverse backgrounds? You will certainly gain a lot of knowledge and receive a lot of ideas.

To meet various people, you have to step out of your comfort zone. And to communicate with people from diverse backgrounds, you need a common language. By majoring in a foreign language, you will expand your reach. With high proficiency in English, your reach will expand even further. This is why I am talking to you in English today.

We have students from 19 countries and regions, including Japan, entering the School of Japan Studies today. They are from Morocco, Australia, Brazil, China, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Malaysia, Nicaragua, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, the United States of America, and Vietnam. If we add graduate students and exchange students, we have students from about 80 countries currently studying on our campus. You can communicate with all of them in English.

Make the most of the environment you have. We offer a large number of courses taught in English. Not only courses for brushing up your English skills. Take courses taught in English. You will meet students from all over the world in such classes. Join the class discussion. And talk with your classmates whenever you meet them outside class on and off campus.

Secondly, I encourage you to take every opportunity to challenge yourself. Do not be afraid of making errors. I believe that it is your privilege as a student that you can repeat errors without much fear of the consequences. You are in a learning process. You are supposed to make errors. By repeating trial and error, you will learn what works and what doesn��t, what fits your interest and what doesn��t.

Studying abroad, or ry��gaku in Japanese, is a great challenge. Every year about 500 students go abroad to study at a partner university overseas for one or two semesters.

We offer tougher challenges: dual degree programs. By studying abroad for more than one year at a partner university and meeting the graduation requirements there, you will obtain two bachelor��s degrees upon graduation from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. The second degree will add international credibility to your academic skills. We have set up such dual degree programs with the University of Central Lancashire, the University of Melbourne, and Rio de Janeiro State University.

Of course, the completion requirements are demanding. But, as I mentioned earlier, do not be afraid of failing. If the challenge is too difficult, come back without a second degree. We will always welcome you warmly and with respect.

I will move on to my third suggestion. Why not think of studying at this university for more than four years?

Elevating language proficiency and communication skills, preparing for studying abroad, gathering knowledge and developing ideas, trying ideas in practice. Going through such a multi-stage process will take time. Actually, the great majority of our students spend more than five years before graduating. But that is not something to worry about. Those who study longer than the standard period find success after graduation. The knowledge and experience gained in the longer term of study outweighs the disadvantage, if any, of graduating a little older.

If studying for five years is not a disadvantage, how about studying for six years, including one or two years abroad, and graduating with not only a bachelor��s degree but also a master��s degree? You will gain more knowledge and more experience. You will also enhance your international credibility.

Look at our university website. You will find an interview article of a graduate from our university who is currently working in Palestine for an international NGO. He is now enrolling in an online MA program offered by London University SOAS. He mentions that a master��s degree is a license to work in the humanitarian aid field.

It is time to sum up. To make yourself ready for a volatile and uncertain future, I suggested that you expose yourself to diversity, take on many challenges, and consider extending your period of study to elevate your degree.

If this sounds too individualistic, let me add another suggestion: ��Be ambitious!�� I will quote a message that was given to the first students at Sapporo Agricultural College (Sapporo N��-gakk��), the predecessor of Hokkaido University, by Vice Principal, William Smith Clark. The message was given in the 1870s, so I have to adapt his words to the contemporary world.

��Be ambitious! Be ambitious not for money or selfish aggrandizement, not for that evanescent thing which people call fame. Be ambitious for knowledge, for righteousness, and for the uplift of others. Be ambitious for the attainment of all that a person ought to be.��

After preparing yourself for the age of volatility and uncertainty, expand your community and contribute to building a global society that embraces diversity and ensures sustainability.

Your journey starts here. Welcome to Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.

-

Nobuo HARUNA
President, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
April 5, 2025

2025 Entry Ceremonial Address from the President (for graduate students)

Welcome to Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.

Ideals and principles tend to be the topics of entrance ceremony speeches, but today I would like to present a message to you that dares you to face reality.

What is the purpose of your enrollment in this program? Many of you, especially those who are entering doctoral programs, may have aspirations to become university faculty members or researchers. I sincerely hope that those aspirations will be fulfilled.

However, those of you who have enrolled in the master��s programs, as well as those of you who have enrolled in the doctoral program, please do not narrow down your future career to a single path just yet. This is because, even now, only a small number of graduates of the postgraduate programs at TUFS are employed as university faculty members or in other stable research or educational positions. In the future, if the number and capacity of universities decreases due to the declining birthrate and the significant decrease in the number of young people, university faculty position openings will become even "narrower" than they are already.

In fact, many graduates of master's degree programs go on to be employed by companies and other organizations outside of research and educational institutions. In Japan, such organizations often do not require a master's degree for employment. However, international and highly specialized professions may require a master's degree.

The TUFS website currently features an interview with a graduate who works for an NGO providing humanitarian assistance in Palestine. The graduate is currently working and taking an online master's degree program at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He mentions that a master��s degree is a license to work in the humanitarian aid field.

The number of doctoral graduates who go on to work in organizations other than research and education institutions, such as corporations, is still very small. However, I believe that it is desirable for our university and Japanese society as a whole to increase the number of people who obtain doctoral degrees and find employment in fields other than research and education. As the population continues to decline, the wisdom and creativity of each individual and their contribution to society will become more important than ever before in order to tackle unprecedented issues, such as the transition to a sustainable society, with fewer people than now. For this reason, the Japanese society of the future will need people who have spent longer periods of time undertaking education and being trained intellectually.

Looking abroad, PhD holders are active in a variety of fields. In Japan, the number of PhD holders per million people is only 120, while in Germany, the United Kingdom, and South Korea, the number exceeds 300. In the United States, the number is also approaching 300. In those countries, the number of university faculty members per population is not significantly higher than in Japan. Many of them have doctoral degrees but are active in a variety of organizations other than universities or other research and educational institutions.

So, even if your first choice is to become a university faculty member, please consider your other options. In other words, always consider how your research activities in graduate school can be used in situations other than research.

The skills you acquire through research activities will serve you well in occupations other than research and education. Setting up your own questions and searching for answers. To do this, you must consider, search for, and analyze the necessary materials. The materials may be not only literature, but also data obtained through interviews or questionnaires. If we divide the process into individual steps, you will conduct your research through the process of problem identification, planning, collection of materials, analysis of materials, and logical thinking. Each of these processes may be useful, not only in research, but also in many situations in society.

Until now, there has been a tendency in Japanese society to believe that those who enter graduate school, especially in the humanities, naturally aspire to careers in research and education. In the future, this view is likely to change. Those of you who are at this turning point are pioneers. You will have to forge your own path that may be different from the paths followed by your predecessors.

Tokyo University of Foreign Studies is committed to supporting you as much as possible in opening up diverse career paths. Starting this year, a new class called "Transferable Skills Practicum" will be offered in the doctoral program. To be honest, however, the university is still in a state of exploration. There may be many aspects that we have yet to perfect. If you have any requests, please let me or the faculty know. I believe people who have received longer education and intellectual training should be active in a variety of fields and contribute to society in a variety of ways. Let us work together to create such a society.

The road ahead of you may not be smooth. Therefore, the word "congratulations" may not be appropriate for this occasion

Instead I will say, welcome to Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. Your journey begins here. We will be by your side.

With these words, I would like to conclude my ceremonial address.

-

Nobuo HARUNA
President, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
April 5, 2025