Nagahiro Minato, 27th President
Today, Kyoto University is proud to award master’s degrees to 110 students, professional master’s degrees to 4 students, and doctoral degrees to 196 students. Of these graduates, 160 are from overseas. Let me begin by offering my sincere congratulations to all of you on your accomplishments.
With today’s ceremony, Kyoto University will have awarded a cumulative total of 92,843 master’s degrees, 2,692 professional master’s degrees, 2,914 juris doctor degrees, and 48,953 doctoral degrees. On behalf of the University’s faculty and staff, I would like to extend my congratulations to each and every one of you on receiving your degrees.
As of today, you are all officially holders of a degree from a Kyoto University graduate school. That means that you have all completed degree programs in your respective academic fields, written dissertations based on your own original research, and been awarded master’s, doctoral, or professional degrees. Again, I would like to express my respect for your efforts and offer my heartfelt congratulations. In the United States, universities generally do not hold entrance ceremonies, but they do hold grand graduation ceremonies, which are often called "commencement ceremonies" — the word "commencement" indicating a new beginning. Today’s graduation ceremony, which is also a "commencement", marks both a major achievement and a new starting point. You are now about to embark on a new journey, either within academia, or in other fields in wider society.
The university that first established the system of "graduate schools as degree-granting education programs" that we know today was Johns Hopkins University in the US in the late 19th century. The system can be said to reflect a social demand brought about by the rapid development of science and technology, which had come to play a central role in the development of society and industry, and which needed people with higher academic and scientific literacy. The first graduate schools were opened to give those with bachelor’s degrees an opportunity to proceed to more advanced academic research. They attracted many motivated students from both inside and outside the US, and the new education system was quickly adopted by other major universities across the country. Unlike undergraduate programs, which were centered on liberal arts education, the new graduate programs required each student to write a dissertation on a research topic of their own choosing, and master’s and doctoral degrees were established as new awards to indicate that students had achieved the qualifications required to be researchers. Since the 20th century in the US, such "degree-holders" have come to play central and leading roles not only in academia, but also in other diverse areas of society, including politics and economics, and today they are considered to be an important driving force behind the development of the nation’s academic, scientific, technological, and industrial development. For example, the current First Lady of the United States, Jill Biden, who holds a Doctor of Education degree, is referred to by the US media as "Dr Jill Biden". That gives us an idea of the social status that academic degrees bestow in the United States.
In Japan, graduate schools were not systematically established as research training institutions until 1946 — after the Second World War. However, the graduate school system did not become particularly widespread or attract many students, so reforms aimed at cultivating not only researchers but also highly skilled professionals were launched in the 1990s. Since then, most of Japan’s national universities have implemented a policy of prioritizing their graduate schools, which has shifted the focus of the education and research structure from undergraduate education to graduate schools. As a result, at Kyoto University, the number of graduate students, including those in master’s, doctoral, and professional courses, has almost doubled over the last quarter century, and the number of degree-holders has also increased rapidly. However, the number of people with academic degrees in Japan is still remarkably low compared to other developed countries. According to a document released in March 2022 by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry at its 4th Mirai Jinzai Kaigi (future human capital convention) , the number of master’s degree-holders per million capita in Japan is only 23% of that in the US, and the number of doctoral degree-holders is approximately 43%, which represents significantly lower numbers than those of European countries and South Korea. There is concern that this may be due to the fact that degree-holders have not yet been given the opportunity to fully demonstrate their abilities in Japanese society. At this very moment, the government, industry, and society at large are engaged in vigorous discussions about how to create an environment in which degree-holders can demonstrate their abilities and play active roles in diverse areas of society. In other words, in today’s society, which faces many complex and difficult challenges, societal expectations for the contributions of degree-holders who have cultivated highly advanced academic and scientific abilities are greater than ever before.
It goes without saying that it is a great achievement for each of you to have pursued your own independent research and produced your own dissertations in your respective degree programs, and the processes by which you undertook that unique research are equally important. In writing your dissertation, you have gone through many processes, including identifying your own research topic, formulating a hypothesis, analyzing and discussing data in order to find ways to solve problems, and then conducting further verification. That experience will be an invaluable asset as you face various challenges in the future. The diverse experiences and abilities that you have cultivated through your hands-on work, such as logical and critical thinking when conducting research, skillful communication with peers, seniors, and supervisors, the ability to cope when faced with difficulties, the ability to process large amounts of information, and research literacy — these are all truly transferable skills. Those skills will prove to be extremely useful assets when you take on new challenges in completely different circumstances. Never before has there been a time like today, when so many diverse sectors of society, from government, industry, and various private corporations to venture businesses, are in need of degree-holders to make full use of their versatile academic skills.
Of course, the recent situation with regards to degrees in the US is not entirely without problems either. Recently, in his book The Tyranny of Merit (2020), Professor Michael Sandel of Harvard University expressed concern that in the modern US, a form of meritocracy has permeated the intellectual elite, represented by those with academic degrees. His concern is that their excessive pride in having survived fierce competition solely through their own efforts and abilities has led to a loss of empathy for the majority of citizens and a weakening of their commitment to contribute to public welfare, and that this is one of the factors behind social division. Addressing the intellectual elite, Sandel asserts that, "we are most fully human when we contribute to the common good and earn the esteem of our fellow citizens for the contributions we make." In their book, The 100-Year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity, Andrew Scott and Lynda Gratton of the London Business School wrote, "what will separate people is not what they know, but rather what they have experienced using this knowledge." This means that even the intellectual elite only have social value when their actions are accepted with respect.
Let me state once again that Japanese society is now watching you with great anticipation to see how, as degree-holders, you will go on to excel in diverse fields in Japan and around the world. As you embark on new journeys into the world of research and other sectors of society, I hope that you will continue to boldly take on the challenges that modern society faces, and make a contribution by fully utilizing the academic knowledge you have accumulated and the transferable skills that you have honed in your respective fields. I would like to conclude these words of congratulations by expressing my sincere hope that you will all achieve great things as members of the intellectual elite in the true meaning of that term, and that doing so will earn you the unwavering recognition and respect of society, which will lead to even greater social recognition and esteem for degree-holders in Japan.
Once again, please allow me to offer you all my sincere congratulations.