President’s Address at the Convocation Ceremony for the Fall 2025 Semester

　Congratulations on your entering Doshisha University. It is my great pleasure to welcome you here at Kambaikan on the Imadegawa Campus. Welcome to Doshisha University. I would like to express my profound respect to all of you gathering here today for your past efforts. I would also like to extend my congratulations to the families who have nurtured and watched over you until this day.
　Today, I would like to share with you what Doshisha University has valued since its foundation. I will begin with the origin of this building, Kambaikan.
　Kambaikan was named after the Chinese poem by our founder Joseph Hardy Neesima, “Truth is like a plum blossom in the cold. It dares to bloom, braving storms and snows.” Neesima likened truth to a plum blossom in the cold, which blooms in the cold weather as if to resist the wind and snow. He wrote down this poem on a piece of autograph paper and gave it to a student, trying to tell what truth is like through the description of a plum blossom in the cold. The name of this student who was given the Chinese poem from Neesima is Fukai Eigo. Fukai later went on to become the 13th Governor of the Bank of Japan.
　In the rapidly changing social circumstances of the early days of capitalism in Japan, Fukai Eigo would have faced major obstacles many times. But he must have continued his pursuit of truth with the poem given by Neesima, “truth is like a plum blossom in the cold. It dares to bloom, braving storms and snows,” in his mind, as he took steady steps in the storm of the times.
　The combination of the word truth with storms and snows reminds me of a circumstance today. Some of the universities in the United States have the Latin word Veritas (truth) as their school motto, among which Harvard University is the most well-known. The large capital letters VERITAS are printed on their school emblem. As reported in the news, Harvard University is facing difficulties brought by the change in the American political scene. As I imagined the situation as if their truth is being tested in the middle of savage snowy storm, I realized how the message of “truth is like a plum blossom in the cold. It dares to bloom, braving storms and snows” has become a universal one beyond national borders.
　In fact, the word Veritas can also be found on the emblem of Doshisha University. I would like to explain briefly about it as new students will often see our emblem from now on. The emblem of Doshisha University has a picture of Clarke Memorial Hall inside a double circle, under which the Latin phrase “VERITAS LIBERABIT VOS” is written. This message is taken from the Gospel of John in the New Testament, and means “the truth will set you free.”
　The sentence “the truth will set you free” is important in that it also represents Neesima’s belief and his purpose of establishing Doshisha. It can be said that Doshisha was established as a space where one can liberate themselves from various constraints through the search of truth.
　In reality, however, we are made aware that the circumstances surrounding truth have changed drastically. We are in the era when it is difficult to distinguish between what is true and what is not, or in the “post-truth” era as is often called, when such distinction does not even matter. Information that appeals to emotion is getting more and more influential in shaping public opinion than objective facts. It goes without saying that this tendency is influenced by SNS and other Internet media and services.
　The learning that involves multi-angled examination of facts and objective discerning of truth is all the more important in such an era when it is getting increasingly difficult to know what is true. I encourage you all to develop your own intellectual foundation through your pursuit of truth, so that you will not be swallowed by the Internet in this chaotic era. It is for that reason that we hope that you will develop yourself as a freer being through genuine encounters with the academic staff and fellow students at Doshisha.
　Your student life is about to begin with the convocation ceremony here in Kambaikan. At this significant moment of the 150th anniversary of foundation, I am pleased to welcome you, our new students, into Doshisha, the community of knowledge where we pursue truth together. I would like to conclude my address by congratulating you on your enrollment and wishing you a fruitful and productive student life.