Good morning, everyone.
I’m pleased to be here today to extend congratulations to you all on the attainment of your degrees on behalf of the faculties and staff of Hokkaido University. I also admire your family and friends who have helped you in your studies on this campus.
Hiroshi Saeki, President,Hokkaido University
This year, 1,527 students including 152 international students will receive a master’s degree. There are 113 professional degree recipients and 373 doctoral degree recipients, including 69 international students. Among them, 346 are from the doctoral program and 27 are from the dissertation doctoral program.
I would like to make special mention of the international students’ assiduous efforts to complete master’s or doctoral programs in Japan, where the language and culture are so different. I share the same sense of accomplishment and happiness that all of you and your families are experiencing now.
Millennia of human history show that humans create sophisticated cultures and highly developed civilizations, through repeated creation, destruction and restoration of existing establishments. By their steady improvement of the understanding of natural and social phenomena, and by passing down the knowledge from generation to generation, humans have brought about the social wealth and conveniences we enjoy now. On the other hand, the amazing scientific and technological development of recent years has led to various pressing concerns. Most of the problems have emerged during the 20th Century. Typical examples are environmental pollution or the safety of biotechnology products including food. Furthermore, the excessive segmentation of academic fields due to the dramatic advancement of scientific technologies has resulted in another issue. The segmentation makes it difficult to understand the whole picture of scientific or technological achievements, not only for the general populace, but also for professionals. It seems to increase the concerns among people about science and technologies. If such segmentation of expertise continues, science and technology may be isolated from public understanding, and as a result, may lose people’s trust. It is vitally important to seriously engage in innovative studies to find solutions to the challenges facing mankind. At the same time, such efforts should be made while taking into consideration the knowledge obtained in social and human science fields. Staying sensible enough to notice how your project is being regarded by people beyond academia is also necessary. Then, cutting edge science and technology studies will be more comprehensible to the general public. In other words, it means viewing a study from diverse perspectives and considering the potentials of the study result applications. At all times it is essential that we must act as professionals to paraphrase technical progresses to increase public understanding.
In the 21st Century, it’s said knowledge–based societies will be dominant. Globalization will accelerate, enabling us to collect necessary information instantly from around the world and to apply it quickly. Immediate results on the basis of the obtained information will be also possible. However, to accomplish a unique outcome, you needn’t work in haste.
In the conference room at the second floor of Enreiso, a faculty house located in the center of the university, hangs a calligraphy by Nitobe Inazo. Nitobe, who was in the second class of Sapporo Agricultural College and famous for his book Bushido, the Soul of Japan, writes “Haste not, Rest not.” It could be rephrased as “Rush not, Work hard.” Too much haste cannot lead to good results in study or any other work. Whatever profession you are engaged in throughout your life, advance steadily step by step, cautiously toward the goal. This is essential to finally reach a breakthrough.
All of you, the degree recipients today, will start out with the frontier spirit, values and the knowledge you’ve learned at Hokkaido University. With that degree, you have the abilities, the skills, and the responsibility to change our world for the better.
I wish you all the best in your continuing journeys, to open up a brighter future. The possibilities are endless.
Thank you very much.