President's Address at the Commencement and the Ceremony for Bestowing Degrees for the Spring 2025 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, please look back on what you have learned and acquired in university, but what we would also like you to think about is 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.
　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.
　In order to keep thinking about it, let us focus on how our founder Joseph Hardy Neesima lived. Neesima was not a loner who would pave his way entirely by himself. When he departed Japan for America against the overseas travel ban, there were people who helped him carry out his rather reckless plan. He would have had difficulty studying after arriving in the United States as well, or even just surviving there, were it not for the support from Mr. and Mrs. Hardy. After Neesima’s return to Japan, his plan of opening a school in Osaka fell through and his dream seemed shattered. However, thanks to the miraculous encounter with Yamamoto Kakuma, who would become the co-incorporator of Doshisha, and the dedicated support of missionary Davis, Neesima finally established Doshisha Eigakko (Academy) in Kyoto in 1875. In the following year, a group of students called the Kumamoto Band joined Doshisha, giving more substance to the school’s education.
　Without the encounters with and the support from these people, Neesima would not have been able to pursue that path, nor would Doshisha have been created or developed. Neesima had numerous experiences of feeling devastated by obstacles, but there were people who helped him rise from disappointment and carry on. Even in extreme adversity, his ability to make quick decisions and actions carefully connecting the chance encounters and form them into concrete shape helped him overcome difficulties and pave new ways.
　After graduating today, I hope you will exert your abilities in various fields as “self-governing independent individuals” fostered in Doshisha. I have just explained how Joseph Hardy Neesima is considered as a model in that sense. Founded by Neesima, Doshisha will celebrate its 150th anniversary on November 29 this year. On Novermber 29, 1875, Doshisha Eigakko opened in a leased house to the east of the Imperial Palace. Once the management of Doshisha Eigakko was stabilized, Neesima began to work for the establishment of a university as the finishing stage of his ideal education. He was particularly committed to establishing the university in his last years, but passed away at the age of 46 years and 11 months without seeing the opening of Doshisha University with his own eyes. As you are about to leave the nest of Doshisha University that Neesima dreamed of, I would lastly like to tell you about how passionate he was about establishing the university.
　Approximately two years before his passing in January 1890, in May 1888, Neesima was diagnosed with a heart problem and was told by the doctor to retire from the front line of work and rest. Two days later, he wrote a letter to one of his first disciples Tokutomi Soho, including a Chinese poem. In the beginning of the poem, he expressed his wish to “borrow a large broom and clean up Japan” as his plan of 10 years was far from being secured. Despite the doctor’s order, Neesima confessed his eagerness to clean up the old Japan and bring about a new society, and to accomplish his decade-long plan of establishing a university for that purpose. At the same time, he also explained in this letter that while this Chinese poem may look like an irreverent pipe dream considering his capabilities, it was not too much of an exaggeration because it really was his lifelong mission.
　As Neesima’s heart wavered amidst the gap between the reality and ideal, his aspiration developed into a lofty aim. His determination to clean up Japan through university-based new education was grand and far-sighted. In November 1888, half a year after writing the above letter, he published “The Aim in Establishing Doshisha University” nationwide via newspapers and magazines. The announcement served as an appeal for support to all Japanese citizens, as well as a letter of challenge to the society of that time. Neesima’s high and lofty aspiration is an asset we should inherit and maintain.
　I recommend you the video series of conversations with our alumni titled “Kokorozashi Sono Saki-e” (Lofty Aim, and Beyond), released as part of our 150th anniversary project, in which I also talked with alumni working in various fields since last year. I hope that watching them will give you inspiration and encouragement. I myself also felt energized through meeting them and hearing how each of them found their aspiration from within the gap between the ideal and reality of life and have strived toward making it real. As shown in these videos, Doshisha continues to produce inheritors of Neesima’s will till the present day.
　In the rapidly changing world today, we tend to become preoccupied and narrow-sighted by immediate concerns. But if we turn to what surrounds us in reality, we face serious and global-scale problems like climate change, widening economic disparity, and discrimination and conflicts. There has not been a time more in need of people with high aspirations and 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, each of you will work actively in society as a self-governing independent individual who knows how to support and be supported by others, embodying the tradition of Doshisha. I would like to conclude my address by wishing the God will bless the future path of each of you as you take a new step forward.