2025年度9月卒業式・学位記授与式を挙行

Today we have 50 students graduating from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. 20 with a Bachelor of Arts, 20 with a Master of Arts, and 10 with a doctorate.

Congratulations! You worked long and hard to earn your degree. Through the years of studying you must have acquired expertise in a certain field that will help you throughout your career life. Let me give you one final message before you leave this campus and move on to the next stage of your life.

Please make use of your expertise as a bridge that connects you with people who have expertise in different fields, not as a wall that confines you in a narrow field.

Only in textbooks is the world compartmentalized into independent and self-contained fields. The real world is complex. To tackle and solve social issues, you will always have to collaborate with many others equipped with diverse knowledge and skills. That is why universities all over the world are promoting and embarking upon interdisciplinary research and education.

In such interdisciplinary collaborative projects, there is plenty of room for experts in humanities and social sciences to participate and make indispensable contributions. For example, think of the initiative to reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide, the primary agent causing climate change.

Engineers have invented electric vehicles to reduce the consumption of fossil fuel. The production and sales of EVs are rapidly expanding, and the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that there will be 280 million EVs being driven in 2040. However, even the rapid and far-reaching spread of EVs is not enough to bring about a substantial reduction of CO2 emissions necessary for curbing climate change. Some people estimate that this wide spread of EVs around the world will only result in 1% reduction in global CO2 emissions. Why? One reason is that emissions in the manufacturing process of cars will actually increase because of the larger engines EVs carry. To make a substantial change we have to reduce our dependence on automotive vehicles.

In 2020 5 scientists endorsed by 11,258 other scientists from 153 countries published a joint statement entitled “World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency” in the journal BioScience. The scientists argued that “The climate crisis is closely linked to excessive consumption of the wealthy lifestyle.” They also point out that “we have generally conducted business as usual and have largely failed to address this predicament” over the last 40 years. So, they claim: “To secure a sustainable future, we must change how we live.”

Climate change caused by excessive emissions of CO2 is not an issue that can be solved solely by technological innovation. As I mentioned earlier, we have to reduce our dependence on automotive vehicles. That is to say we have to change how we live. And in that respect, you are now equipped to make contributions. Your profound knowledge of language communication, culture, and society, and your sophisticated skills of expanding, deepening, and transmitting your knowledge will prove practical and advantageous in designing new lifestyles and new social systems.

Let me quote Professor Shoichiro Iwakiri, a French literature scholar and the current President of International Christian University. In an essay on alchemy, he wrote that poets have the ability to transform things which people think trivial into new beauties and new values through their artistic work. Just as poetic alchemy, you know how to make dull life shine. You can make carless life, which people may think boring and inconvenient, appear attractive and enjoyable. You can design new lifestyles with your stock of knowledge.

Tackling climate change is a grandiose and overarching project. Expertise in various fields is needed. It is not surprising that experts in humanities and social sciences have a role in such a project.

I have to add that there is room for you to make substantial contributions in more specific and narrowly defined projects as well. That is what most of our graduates are engaged in. Think of some of the graduates you know. You will easily find ones collaborating with engineers, food experts, and medical doctors.

You already possess profound knowledge and sophisticated skills acquired through years of studying and training. The remaining question is how to make full use of your knowledge and skills. The degree you received today adds credibility to your expertise. It will enable you to collaborate with experts in other fields more easily.

On top of the qualification, I suggest that you equip yourself with flexibility and open-mindedness. Rigidity is required in disciplinary training, but flexibility is what you need to apply your expertise in the real world and to collaborate with other experts. Finally, you have to be open-minded not to miss various opportunities.

I think I told you everything I had to before sending you off to the next stage of your journey. Bon voyage!

2025.9.19

President, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
HARUNA Nobuo