Address of the President of the University of Tokyo
at the 2014 Autumn Semester Diploma Presentation/Graduation Ceremony
Many congratulations to all of you. You have been awarded a doctor’s, master’s, professional, or bachelor’s degree by the University of Tokyo. Today marks a special day as you start a new chapter of your lives, while holding a diploma that recognizes your perseverance and intellectual determination. On behalf of all the staff of the University, I would like to extend my sincere congratulations. I would also like to express my congratulations and gratitude to your families, who supported you while you devoted yourself to studies, and are present here today to witness your academic achievements.
The total number of students completing their postgraduate courses by the autumn of this year is 519. Of which there are 278 doctor’s degree graduates, 205 master’s degree graduates, and 36 professional degree graduates. There are 304 international students, who account for around 60 % of the total. 38 undergraduate students have also graduated.
Now, you will begin different career paths. Some of you will remain within the research community and dedicate yourselves to more deeply exploring the world of academia, and some of you may feel it is time to bid farewell to university life and become productive members of society. We have many international students present here. Some of you will engage in research or business activities in Japan, while others may anticipate exciting prospects at home. Whichever path you may take, I would like you to enjoy fulfilling lives and contribute significantly to human society by making best use of the strengths you have developed over many years of study.
As graduates, you will take up leadership roles, contributing to progress in science and technology, as well as to economies, cultures, and institutions in Japan and around the world. It is my wish that you continue to grow intellectually based on the knowledge you have acquired, and apply it effectively in practice. Furthermore, I would encourage you to consciously broaden the spectrum of your intellectual interests, to continue studying liberal arts. In other words, I would like you to consider today’s ceremony to be the first step in a life-long and personal intellectual journey of discovery.
You may consider your studies in the liberal arts to be part of your past. Under the undergraduate education system of the University of Tokyo, all new entrants spend their first two years in the Faculty of Liberal Arts, where they study a broad range of academic disciplines without the constraints of specialization. All of you present here have had such experience pursuing a broad range of studies, in one way or the other, during your time as undergraduates. It is our belief that studying liberal arts during the early stages of undergraduate life or, in other words, being exposed to a broad range of disciplines, provides a meaningful guide when considering which specialist studies to undertake during the second half of the undergraduate course. We call this mechanism “Early Exposure, Late Specialization.” However, we believe that studying liberal arts offers more, and that liberal arts can be studied at any time in life, not just as a young undergraduate.
Having knowledge of a broad range of academic disciplines will certainly be an advantage when exploring your specialty further or applying specialized knowledge in practice. In recent years, it has often been pointed out that multi-disciplinary collaborations that transcend the boundaries between individual specialist fields are required as we confront various complex social issues. Those include, for example, environmental conservation, disaster prevention, energy and nuclear power, genetic treatments and regenerative medicine, and the aging of society accompanied by a falling birth rate. Any one of these issues presents difficulties if tackled with knowledge derived from a single specialist field. What is required instead is to find solutions by mobilizing knowledge from diverse specialties. Of course, one individual is not expected to be accomplished in all fields. There have not been many geniuses like Leonardo da Vinci, who had a wide range of accomplishments, ranging from painting and sculpture to science, mathematics, and anatomy. In addition, academic disciplines today have become enormously advanced and segmented compared to the era of da Vinci.
However, having knowledge and a sense for concepts, logic, and methodologies needed to solve problems used in an academic discipline that is outside your specialty field, even if only partial or superficial, can be very useful as they allow you greater flexibility when encountering complex events. The quality of being a cultivated individual should first emerge as the ability to recognize that knowledge from other fields of study is necessary to solve problems. Led by knowledge accumulated by others, you can study and take insights from other disciplines. Even if you do not have the academic tools to fully understand every aspect of a subject, you will find clues that you can borrow to help solve a problem. In other words, although it may appear to be an exaggeration, studying a broad range of disciplines will help you develop the potential to become a modern type of da Vinci.
I have had similar experiences. I studied at the Graduate Schools for Law and Politics, specializing first in constitutional law and later in law and policies as they relate to information and mass media. Studying law might lead you to think that we do nothing but stare hard at the letter and language of the law. But, that is not true. The law breathes in the vivid reality of daily human activities. Studying law in depth is, therefore, a profound experience. It requires you to study philosophy and ethics relating to people’s beliefs and values, to study the psychologies of both individuals and societies, to study the realities of people’s daily lives, and to study the structures and dynamics of law-based societies and their economic mechanisms. In a specialty field such as mine, which addresses information as its theme, it is naturally necessary to become acquainted with knowledge in such areas as information science and technology, as well as the life sciences. Behind the law, there is a long history of societies and human beings. In addition, the law is positioned to influence people and be influenced by people beyond national boundaries. This makes it necessary to acquire a knowledge and understanding of the histories, institutions, and cultures of other nations. Whether in the field of law or other disciplines, and to various degrees, it is necessary to draw upon not only specialized knowledge in a narrow sense, but also a broad range of academic knowledge. Therefore, as you pursue the path along which your specialty takes you, at the same time you will continue to cultivate within yourself an open perspective. By doing so, I believe, you will grow to become a true specialist.
I must add, however, that the significance of being a cultivated individual goes far beyond this. Recently, when I was talking with academic staff involved in liberal arts education, I learned that the significance of studying a wide range of disciplines lies in the potential for us to develop the ability for relativizing within ourselves. By constantly feeling the tension generated by relativization, we can motivate ourselves to grow as human beings as well as within our own intellectual worlds. We have learned much since our births. While studying intensely for entrance examinations and during life at university, we encountered a multiplicity of knowledge, concepts, and perspectives. However, the world of the intellect is a boundless ocean. No matter how much we learn, its quality and quantity is still very limited. The ways we live and draw inspiration are confined by that context. The role of liberal arts is to relativize and liberate your minds. By pursuing liberal arts studies further, you will be able to focus on different things and discover different approaches in the way you create ideas within the framework of your specialty.
Let me put it differently. Developing as a cultivated individual means that you develop the ability to marshal a collection of knowledge and take a bird’s-eye view of a subject. As you progress in specialized research, you are able to gain deep insights into a narrow field. We often experience a moment when a fresh idea or insight emerges as we explore our specialty deeper. However, this also presents the risk that new ideas and knowledge become narrowly defined. It is a bird’s-eye view that enables you to find where your research theme is positioned within a broad intellectual context, hence enabling you to reduce such a risk and bring fresh elements into your thoughts. You can narrow the focus on highly specialized research, while from time to time taking a bird’s-eye view and enlarging the horizon. This will lead you to discover a new method of addressing a problem, or give you an opportunity to explore new problems you never imagined existed.
It is my expectation that you will directly address diverse and complex problems in our society, while giving greater freedom and flexibility to your intellectual spirit by combining a high level of expertise with the qualities of a cultivated individual. I wish you all good luck in the future.
Junichi Hamada
President
The University of Tokyo
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