Nagahiro Minato, 27th President
Today, Kyoto University welcomes 79 new students enrolling in master's programs, 141 enrolling in doctoral programs, and 3 enrolling in professional degree programs. On behalf of the University's faculty and staff members, I congratulate all of you on your enrollment at Kyoto University. I also extend my warmest congratulations to your families and all those who have encouraged and supported you thus far. In particular, I would like to extend a heartfelt welcome to the many international students who have enrolled in one of Kyoto University's graduate schools.
Today marks your first step towards engaging in real research in your chosen fields. In addition to its 18 graduate schools, Kyoto University has over 30 affiliated research institutes and centers that will provide you with opportunities to conduct studies and research through their graduate programs. On the occasion of this entrance ceremony, I would like to take this opportunity to discuss three points.
First, I would like to talk about conducting independent studies and research. Throughout your undergraduate studies, you have worked to acquire basic knowledge and skills in the liberal arts and various fields of specialization. In most cases, the emphasis has been on acquiring and mastering useful know-how as efficiently as possible. You have completed your entire course of study and have earned credits accordingly. However, in the graduate programs that you will now be progressing to, each of you will be expected to set your own themes, conduct research and investigations based on your own initiative, and compile and publish the results of your research as a dissertation. To do that, you will need to develop more advanced specialized knowledge and skills by building on the basic knowledge acquired at the undergraduate level, and you will also need to develop the various arts and techniques required to be researchers and highly skilled professionals.
The most important prerequisites to achieve that are the strength of your motivation and your commitment to your chosen research topic. Those qualities could stem from your boundless curiosity and spirit of inquiry about the unknown phenomena of nature and life, or your interest in complex social phenomena and diverse human activities. During the research process, you will likely encounter various difficulties and obstacles. What will give you the strength to overcome those difficulties is ultimately none other than your own intrinsic motivation and the strength of your dedication to your research topic. Provided you always keep your motivation for tackling your chosen research topic in mind, and hold on to it tenaciously, your research is sure to produce excellent results.
With this in mind, the second important thing is to have a spatial perspective that extends as far as possible into society, the world, and the universe, as well as a temporal perspective that spans the past, present, and future. No matter what field of study you pursue, it is impossible for it not to have some connection with the world and the future. The remarkable progress of modern science and technology is having an unprecedented impact on nature, human society, and the lives of all people living on Earth. While that progress has certainly contributed greatly to the improvement of people's lives, culture, health, and welfare, it is also bringing about a number of extremely serious and difficult challenges that may even affect the very survival of humanity in the future. It is in an era such as this that you will be entering the world of cutting-edge cultural, academic, scientific, and technological research. Therefore, I believe that it is not a waste of time to think about how the research topic that you are about to pursue may relate to various social issues. Kyoto University's graduate schools have interdisciplinary research programs in which students and researchers from diverse fields collaborate across the borders of individual faculties and departments to address larger research challenges. Participating in such interdisciplinary research programs while working on your own research will greatly broaden your perspective and will be a great help in constantly reaffirming the meaning of your own research.
The third point is to be aware of the potential for the results of your graduate school research to be realized as social value. Recently, you may have often heard the term "impact startup". Unlike a company whose main objective is to generate economic profit, an impact startup is based on a clear intention to contribute to addressing social issues through the achievements of original academic or scientific research. The desire to improve society — even a little — through the results of one's research may not be the most immediate purpose of research, but I think it is very meaningful. That spirit is also referred to as "entrepreneurship", and its realization often requires different qualities and abilities than academic research itself. Entrepreneurship is often simply interpreted as being the drive to establish new businesses, but in the European Union (EU), it has long been positioned as an important educational policy, as one of the "key set of competences needed for personal development, social inclusion, active citizenship and employment". President Joseph E Aoun of Northeastern University, who has held key positions in the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Council on Education, and other organizations, has emphasized that, regarding higher education in the age of AI, "teaching entrepreneurship — especially social entrepreneurship — should ... be a matter of national consequence and priority for universities".
The programs provided by Kyoto University's graduate schools also cultivate that kind of entrepreneurship. In addition to direct methods, like impact startups, there are many ways to contribute to society by providing tangible value from the hard-earned outcomes of your academic research. Regardless of the form it takes, your desire to contribute to people's wellbeing through the outcomes of your research should be respected, and that desire may even drive your research to new horizons.
Finally, while the research results that you will produce and academic papers that you will write are important, the most important aspect of graduate school research and investigation is the process that leads to those achievements. In other words, the process itself is important: choosing a problem to address, carefully considering ways to solve it, carrying out the research, verifying the results, and continuing the discussion in search of the truth without giving up — even in the face of repeated failures. That process of trial and error will fortify your energy and intelligence, and it will be a valuable asset in the form of versatile, transferable skills that you can apply as you develop your career in society in the future. In their co-authored book, The 100-Year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity (2017), Professors Andrew Scott and Lynda Gratton of the London Business School state that, "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 will only be socially valued if their actions are accepted and acknowledged with respect.
Throughout its long history of over 125 years since its founding, Kyoto University has placed the utmost importance on what we refer to as the "spirit of academic freedom". This refers to the freedom of mind that allows one to release one's own thinking from the various social conventions and empirical constraints that have previously impeded academic research. I offer these words today in the heartfelt hope that, through that spirit of academic freedom, you will all lead fulfilling lives as researchers in your respective academic fields, deepening your interactions and engaging in discussions with many colleagues, and that you will develop as professionals who have earned the respect of those around you.
Once again, please allow me to offer you all my sincere congratulations.