President’s Address at the 2026 Convocation Ceremony

　Congratulations on your entering Doshisha University. It is my great pleasure to welcome you here at the Kyotanabe Campus in the beautiful season of fresh green and cherry blossoms. 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.
　Doshisha celebrated its 150th anniversary on November 29 last year. That day, we were joined by as many as 1,600 people at the anniversary ceremony held at Kyoto International Conference Center, celebrating our 150th anniversary together. The ceremony was a precious opportunity for us to remind ourselves how the present Doshisha is supported by many people. I would like us to reflect on the meaning of the 150 years of history on this occasion, with the hope that entering our university will be a special experience for each of you.
　Looking back on each era of our institution’s history of 150 years is not easy as it requires a certain level of knowledge. Still, each and every one of us here today is an entity created by and connected to the history of Doshisha for certain. As a hint to picture that in your mind, please take a moment to imagine what Doshisha was like 150 years ago.
　150 years ago, Doshisha Eigakko, the predecessor of Doshisha University, opened with two teachers and eight students. In the present day, Doshisha University has grown so large that the convocation ceremony needs to be held three times to accommodate all of its new students every year, approximately 6,500 in undergraduate programs and a little more than 800 in graduate programs. Connecting the starting point and present day of Doshisha may make its history look like smooth sailing, but we should not forget that the school has endured many eras of challenges before reaching its current state. Doshisha University has produced as many as 380,000 graduates so far. We are proud of the achievements and contributions that our alumni have made in various fields since the foundation, and recognize with awe and gratitude that the present Doshisha exists because of the hard work of many predecessors who have endured difficult times.
　Today, Doshisha University identifies itself as a university open to the world, both sending out and accepting students to and from different parts of the world. Deepening the ties with the world beyond borders, understanding diversity and enriching one’s view of the world are important tasks for new students who will lead the new generation. In addition, a view of history is equally important as a view of the world. You can only weave an elaborate and flexible intellectual world in yourself when your perception of history and the world are intertwined as warp and weft. Without an understanding of history, you cannot take a panoramic view of nor delve into the complex problems faced by the world in the era of rapid changes. Understanding of history also plays a significant role in considering how to handle artificial intelligence (AI), one of the major forces driving the changes of the times.
　In the past few years, our lives and society have been heavily influenced by the birth and development of generative AIs. The impact on university education and research is significant, requiring us to have the ability to make use of them in an appropriate manner rather than just enjoying the convenience of this cutting-edge technology. What can each of us do, then, when it is difficult even for governments to control the influence of AIs?
　Using generative AIs in writing and creating images with efficiency may give you an illusion as if you have become smarter. The power of the magic that makes us feel smarter in a short time is so compelling that it is hard for us to break free of it. How will we be able to use AIs with critical objectification instead of being absorbed by them?
　In terms of intelligence, AIs are getting close to gaining the capability that can match that of humans. Through learning in our university, I hope that new students will acquire the intellect that can hold its own with AIs. But at the same time, please pay attention to the “foolishness” that humans have, not just the “intelligence.” I think that recognizing the “foolishness” of humans is more necessary than superficial knowledge and skills in order to fully utilize ever-developing AIs without becoming overwhelmed by them.
　Humankind has invented and used a wide variety of tools over centuries. Tools and technologies created by humans have enriched our lives, but have also been used as means to create division between people and make them kill each other. Even in the present day when science has fully developed and we are in the process of obtaining a technology matching human intelligence, there is no end to human foolishness including widening economic disparity and discrimination, environmental destruction and wars.
　Examples from which we can learn about human foolishness in depth can be found in any academic field. Knowing the raw reality of humans who can be smart and at the same time be extremely foolish will be an antidote to the sense of omnipotence and illusion brought occasionally by cutting-edge technology.
　I would like our new students to continue learning in a steady and stable manner through university life. On the other hand, in an era when AIs are there to kindly and efficiently guide you in almost everything, what actually opens a new path for you might rather be the time of struggling, trial and error, and cringing at your own foolishness, or inefficient happenings that do not go as expected. It is also the privilege of a student to have extraordinary experiences and encounters that can flip around what you thought was common sense.
　Joseph Hardy Neesima was literally such a person who headed for a new world after extraordinary experiences opened his eyes, and here I would like to introduce one of the people who lived the longest during the 150-year history of Doshisha. The former Grand Master of the Urasenke school of tea ceremony, Mr. Sen Genshitsu, who passed away at the age of 102 on August 14 last year, was also someone who jumped into a new world in an unexpected way and made use of the experience in his later life. When he was deciding which junior high school to apply for, Mr. Sen Genshitsu was told by his father to go to Doshisha and resisted, saying “Our family is the head of a tea ceremony school, why do I have to go to a Christian school?” His education from junior high to university at Doshisha eventually opened up a way for the tradition of tea ceremony to be introduced to international society. This shows the wonder of life that defies one’s expectations.
　We experience various turning points in our lives. I suppose Doshisha University was not the first choice for some of you here. But sometimes the choice that you initially did not desire may lead you to a new path that you never imagined. When Neesima opened Doshisha Eigakko in Kyoto 150 years ago, he did not think it was the result of his efforts at all. He was well aware that without the unexpected chance encounters and the helping hands that were offered to him, he would not have had such an eventful life, nor had he seen the opening of Doshisha.
　What kind of life do our new students want to lead from now on? It might be a grand question, but one worth considering upon entering university. I hope that each of you will pursue the path of discovering what you truly want to do through various unexpected encounters. I would like to conclude my address by congratulating you on your enrollment and wishing you a fruitful and productive student life.