President's Address at the Commencement and the Ceremony for Bestowing Degrees for the Spring 2024 Semester

　I would like to extend my warmest congratulations to all of you who just received your bachelor’s, master’s, professional and doctoral degrees respectively on this day of celebration, and to express my profound respect to you all for your hard work in study and research until today. My heartfelt congratulations also go to your families and acquaintances who have warmly watched over and supported you throughout the years.
　Till this day, you have learned many things at Doshisha University. Today’s Commencement is a good occasion for you to look back on what you have learned and acquired in university, but we would also like you to take this opportunity to think about how you will utilize the knowledge and experiences you have gained in the future.
　From your childhood to university and graduate school, you have studied primarily for yourself. From now on, we would like you to seek ways to apply what you have learned and experienced not only for yourself but for the benefit of others and society.
　You would have heard of the phrase “noblesse oblige.” It means that people with wealth, special status or high education should use their privilege to actively contribute to society.
　You may think that you do not have much knowledge or power. But if you look around the world, there are millions of children and young people who are deprived of the opportunity to be educated. It is therefore fair to say that you are privileged to have had an opportunity to study at a higher education institution.
　In order to pay attention to others and the society, seek what you can do and bring it into shape, you must be standing on your own feet first. That is related to the objective of education at Doshisha, that is to cultivate “self-governing independent individuals.” 
　Having learned many things in university, would you say you can now stand firmly on your own two feet compared to when you were a new student? Self-governing independence in the tradition of Doshisha is not about being able to do everything by oneself without the help of others. No one can live alone; it is very important to be able to seek help when you are in trouble. To find a lot of people who will help you, and to become capable of helping more people, is the way of self-governing independence that you should strive for. I would like to explain why it is through the history of Doshisha.
　Doshisha will celebrate its 150th anniversary next year in 2025. In August 1875, Joseph Hardy Neesima and Yamamoto Kakuma jointly submitted the “Plan for a Private School” to Kyoto prefecture and received the approval. On Novermber 29 of the same year, Doshisha Eigakko (Academy) opened in a leased house to the east of the Imperial Palace, with two teachers, Neesima and missionary Davis, and eight students. What started as a small private school has now grown to be a large comprehensive educational institution. The history of Doshisha may look smooth sailing if you just look at its starting point and its current status, but the reality was the opposite; the birth of Doshisha itself faced full of difficulties.
　Neesima initially aspired to establish a school in Osaka, but the plan fell through just one step short. Shattered and disheartened, Neesima visited Kyoto for the first time for sightseeing as well as to heal his heart’s wounds, and had the life-changing encounter with Yamamoto Kakuma there. When Neesima was at a loss about opening a school, Yamamoto deeply sympathized with his intentions and offered understanding and cooperation in his plan to establish a school in Kyoto. Yamamoto’s offer of cooperation was hard to believe for Neesima. Encouraged by Yamamoto, Neesima decided to take a new step in Kyoto.
　But when Neesima told his fellow missionaries about this new plan, most of them were against it. Not only were they against his plan of establishing a school, they criticized him that it was nonsensical and impossible to open a Christian school in a place like Kyoto where Japanese traditions are most strongly preserved. It was Davis who took the brunt of the criticism, defending and supporting Neesima.
　Doshisha could not have been established in Kyoto were it not for the support of Yamamoto Kakuma and Davis. To begin with, what made it possible for Neesima to learn many things in the United States and return to Japan safely was the support of Alpheus Hardy, who can be called as his American father. When Neesima arrived in Boston in 1865 after a year of journey across the seas, there was no one who welcomed him in the United States. Nowhere else to go, he had no choice but to stay on board the ship in Boston Harbor and spend sleepless nights there for three months, after which he met Hardy, the owner of the ship he boarded, the Wild Rover. Deeply moved by Neesima’s aspirations, Hardy decided to support the livelihood and learning of this young Asian stranger. Neesima was able to pursue his path thanks to the support and help of many people like Hardy.
　Neesima was certainly an exceptional person, but it is better not to see him as if he had been a great person from the start. If you place him in a success story narrative as if he had a special talent that enabled him to study in the United States and to establish Doshisha, you will miss an important point. Neesima had numerous experiences of feeling devastated by obstacles, but there were people who helped him rise from disappointment and carry on. He became a self-governing independent person not through his own strength, but through the support from many people and by giving back the support to them. Neesima’s aspiration and way of life attracted a lot of people, and inspire us in the present day as well.
　What awaits you after graduation is a constantly changing society. Moreover, serious problems like climate change, widening economic disparity, discrimination and conflicts are surrounding us in reality. No matter how difficult these problems are, we must face and solve them, or the situation could become more aggravated in the next 50 years both in Japan and across the world. There has not been a time more in need of people with conscience who can use their academic knowledge and skills appropriately to create a better society. It is our hope that as alumni of Doshisha University, you will provide good leadership in society as a self-governing independent individual who knows how to support and be supported by others, embodying the tradition of Doshisha.
　Doshisha has produced approximately 370,000 alumni who are active in various fields and support our university through their interconnectedness. You will not be disconnected from Doshisha by graduating, but you will become a member of the broader and cross-generational Doshisha community, where you are expected to expand your network of reciprocal support. I would like to conclude my address by wishing you the best in your future endeavors, and wishing the God will bless the future path of each of you as you take a new step forward.