Congratulations, New Students! (2026 Entrance Ceremony)

2026 Entry Ceremonial Address from the President (for undergraduate students)

Welcome to Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.

Let me speak in English. I know that most of you will major in a language other than English. And I can tell you that your proficiency in that language will become an advantage throughout your life. But if you lack proficiency in English, that is a disadvantage in the global society. No matter what your major is, all of you should be highly proficient in English.

Let me start with a question. Why did you decide to study at university? And why did you choose this university in particular? I would like you to think over such questions and be aware of your own choice.

Why? Because there are people who question the necessity of learning foreign languages at a time when AI is rapidly developing and spreading.

Why did you choose to enter Tokyo University of Foreign Studies in such an era?

Today, I would like to give you my own answer to this question. I will give you my understanding of why it is meaningful to study foreign languages even in the age of AI.

People meet with each other and talk to each other in person even nowadays when we all make full use of information and communication technology and AI. It seems as if the value of meeting in person has paradoxically increased because of the emergence of a substitutional means, ICT. Either in politics or in business, important negotiations are conducted in person and significant decisions are made in in-person meetings. The Prime Minister of Japan, Takaichi, went to the United States last month, and the President of France, Macron, came to Japan this week.

Companies also prefer business talks and negotiations in person. And companies which have a great deal of overseas transactions value foreign language skills the same as before even in the age of AI. General trading companies such as Toyota Tsusho Corporation or Mitsui and Company have overseas training programs intended to enhance foreign language skills of their employees. According to newspaper Nikkei, the overseas foreign language training programs will remain intact at both companies. A staff member at the human relations department of Mitsui says that foreign language skills enhance competitiveness of trading company employees.

Foreign language skills are significant not only because they are helpful tools in cross-border transactions. Trading companies think that foreign language skills are essential in building confidence with partners overseas.

There is no doubt that jobs and labor practices will change in many workplaces because of the development and spread of AI. According to the Government of Japan, over 4 million clerical workers may become redundant. Even if this forecast proves to be true, I do not think that people will stop meeting each other and talking to each other in person. We will continue to see people physically laughing and nodding in in-person conversation.

The invention of the internet has also changed our ways of working drastically. However, did the wide use of the internet change how we meet each other and talk to each other?

If nothing changes in such situations, the skills we need for successful negotiations will not be different from what we needed in the pre-AI age. Foreign language skills are among those skills.

In his book titled “Foreign Service Training Institute,” Diplomat Kazuyuki Katayama introduced what the Personnel Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has required as essential traits and abilities necessary for diplomats. The head of the Division in 2015 stated as follows:

“Diplomacy is basically the intercourse between states. But examined closely, the relationship between individuals representing states will come to focus. Therefore, each staff member of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is required to possess many traits and abilities such as flexibility in thinking, negotiation skills, communication skills, high proficiency in foreign languages, and personal charm”

Here again, “high proficiency in foreign languages” is considered as a requirement because the Ministry of Foreign Affairs thinks that it is necessary for their employees to communicate with people overseas, build confidence with people overseas, and be persuasive and influential to people overseas.

In an interview with newspaper Mainichi, Kimiharu Kurokawa, a graduate of TUFS and a former staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with experience as a translator for the Prime Minister, argued that the required English skills in the age of AI are the high-level skills necessary for “moving others, persuading others, and connecting with others in English.”

Linguistic skills necessary for “moving others” should be acquired in your native language first. If you acquire such skills in foreign languages as well, you can expand your horizons into the world outside Japan. To quote Mr. Kurokawa’s expression, English is “a potential amplifier of life.”

If the value of talking to others in person, and especially talking to others in person across borders, does not fade away, the value of studying foreign languages and acquiring high proficiency in foreign languages will not diminish even after AI spreads widely across the world.

Let me talk about another reason why it is meaningful to study foreign languages.

Language acquisition does not end with memorizing words. Words do not match one-to-one with what they indicate. A word is not a “dot,” but rather an “area.” The perimeter is determined by its relations with other words. Even the connotation of a noun has range. What a verb means is furthermore ambiguous.

Mutsumi Imai and Kimi Akita, in their award-winning best-seller “Essence of Language,” explained that children learn words through trial and error. Children try words in contexts they think suitable. In some cases, they are correct, but in many other cases they are not. We all learned our native language through such a process of trial and error.

Doesn’t this process of language acquisition resemble research, the creative act of acquiring new knowledge? In language acquisition, we build our own “hypotheses” concerning the meaning and usage of words, we test them through trial and error. We consolidate our understanding when we are correct and make corrections when we are wrong. Isn’t this the same procedure as academic research? I might be overstating, but we learn languages by accumulating tiny “discoveries.”

Your process of learning a foreign language will not be the same as children learning their native language. You already have experience of learning your native language and you also have wisdom that children lack. However, you will also go through the trial-and-error process of hypothesis-building, testing, correcting, and consolidating just as children do. Therefore, by studying foreign languages, you will train yourself in intellectual creation without noticing.

I talked too much. Let’s wrap up. Some people say that it is inefficient to put much time and effort into learning foreign languages now that we have high-end AI spreading around the world. But I believe that the value of linguistic skills will not diminish because we need them to build confidence with others and move others when we meet and talk to others in person. I believe that the importance of in-person meetings will increase because of the development and spread of ICT and AI.

Enhancing your skills of communication is not the only advantage of learning foreign languages. The trial-and-error process of thinking, trying, failing, and learning which you go through is nothing but the training for intellectual creativity.

Fearless challenges and trial and error are necessary in the process of learning foreign languages. You will make error after error in the process. The same repetition of challenges and errors accompany any process of creating something new. As Thomas Edison mentioned, there is no success without failures.

Welcome to university. Welcome to Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. Starting today, I would like you to take on new challenges without any fear. We will always be by your side.

-

Nobuo HARUNA
President, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
April 4, 2026

2026 Entry Ceremonial Address from the President (for graduate students)

Welcome to Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.

Let me speak in English. I know that most of you will major in a language other than English. And I can tell you that your proficiency in that language will become an advantage throughout your life. But if you lack proficiency in English, that is a disadvantage in the global society. No matter what your major is, all of you should be highly proficient in English.

Let me start with a question. Why did you decide to study at university? And why did you choose this university in particular? I would like you to think over such questions and be aware of your own choice.

Why? Because there are people who question the necessity of learning foreign languages at a time when AI is rapidly developing and spreading.

Why did you choose to enter Tokyo University of Foreign Studies in such an era?

Today, I would like to give you my own answer to this question. I will give you my understanding of why it is meaningful to study foreign languages even in the age of AI.

People meet with each other and talk to each other in person even nowadays when we all make full use of information and communication technology and AI. It seems as if the value of meeting in person has paradoxically increased because of the emergence of a substitutional means, ICT. Either in politics or in business, important negotiations are conducted in person and significant decisions are made in in-person meetings. The Prime Minister of Japan, Takaichi, went to the United States last month, and President of France, Macron, came to Japan this week.

Companies also prefer business talks and negotiations in person. And companies which have a great deal of overseas transactions value foreign language skills the same as before even in the age of AI. General trading companies such as Toyota Tsusho Corporation or Mitsui and Company have overseas training programs intended to enhance foreign language skills of their employees. According to newspaper Nikkei, the overseas foreign language training programs will remain intact at both companies. A staff member at the human relations department of Mitsui says that foreign language skills enhance competitiveness of trading company employees.

Foreign language skills are significant not only because they are helpful tools in cross-border transactions. Trading companies think that foreign language skills are essential in building confidence with partners overseas.

There is no doubt that jobs and labor practices will change in many workplaces because of the development and spread of AI. According to the Government of Japan, over 4 million clerical workers may become redundant. Even if this forecast proves to be true, I do not think that people will stop meeting each other and talking with each other in person. We will continue to see people physically laughing and nodding in in-person conversation.

The invention of the internet has also changed our ways of working drastically. However, did the wide use of the internet change how we meet each other and talk with each other?

If nothing changes in such situations, the skills we need to for successful negotiations will not be different from what we needed in the pre-AI age. Foreign language skills are among those skills.

In his book titled “Foreign Service Training Institute,” Diplomat Kazuyuki Katayama introduced what the Personnel Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has required as essential traits and abilities necessary for diplomats. The head of the Division in 2015 stated as follows:

“Diplomacy is basically the intercourse between states. But examined closely, the relationship between individuals representing states will come to focus. Therefore, each staff member of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is required to possess many traits and abilities such as flexibility in thinking, negotiation skills, communication skills, high proficiency in foreign languages, and personal charm”

Here again, “high proficiency in foreign languages” is considered as a requirement because the Ministry of Foreign Affairs thinks that it is necessary for their employees to communicate with people overseas, build confidence with people overseas, and be persuasive and influential to people overseas.

In an interview with newspaper Mainichi, Kimiharu Kurokawa, a graduate of TUFS and a former staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with experience as a translator for the Prime Minister, argued that the required English skills in the age of AI are the high-level skills necessary for “moving others, persuading others, and connecting with others in English.”

Linguistic skills necessary for “moving others” should be acquired in your native language first. If you acquire such skills in foreign languages as well, you can expand your horizons into the world outside Japan. To quote Mr. Kurokawa’s expression, English is “a potential amplifier of life.”

If the value of talking with others in person, and especially talking with others in person across borders, does not fade away, the value of studying foreign languages and acquiring high proficiency in foreign languages will not diminish even after AI spreads widely across the world.

Let me talk about another reason why it is meaningful to study foreign languages.

Language acquisition does not end with memorizing words. Words do not match one-to-one with what they indicate. A word is not a “dot,” but rather an “area.” The perimeter is determined by its relations with other words. Even the connotation of a noun has range. What a verb means is furthermore ambiguous.

Mutsumi Imai and Kimi Akita, in their award-winning best-seller “Essence of Language,” explained that children learn words through trial and error. Children try words in contexts they think suitable. In some cases, they are correct, but in many other cases they are not. We all learned our native language through such a process of trial and error.

Doesn’t this process of language acquisition resemble research, the creative act of acquiring new knowledge? In language acquisition, we build our own “hypotheses” concerning the meaning and usage of words, we test them through trial and error. We consolidate our understanding when we are correct and make corrections when we are wrong. Isn’t this the same procedure as academic research? I might be overstating, but we learn languages by accumulating tiny “discoveries.”

Your process of learning a foreign language will not be the same as children learning their native language. You already have experience of learning your native language and you also have wisdom that children lack. However, you will also go through the trial-and-error process of hypothesis-building, testing, correcting, and consolidating just as children do. Therefore, by studying foreign languages, you will train yourself in intellectual creation without noticing.

I talked too much. Let’s wrap up. Some people say that it is inefficient to put much time and effort into learning foreign languages now that we have high-end AI spreading around the world. But I believe that the value of linguistic skills will not diminish because we need them to build confidence with others and move others when we meet and talk with others in person. I believe that the importance of in-person meetings will increase because of the development and spread of ICT and AI.

Enhancing your skills of communication is not the only advantage of learning foreign languages. The trial-and-error process of thinking, trying, failing, and learning which you go through is nothing but the training for intellectual creativity.

Fearless challenges and trial and error are necessary in the process of learning foreign languages. You will make error after error in the process. The same repetition of challenges and errors accompany any process of creating something new. As Thomas Edison mentioned, there is no success without failures.

Welcome to university. Welcome to Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. Starting today, I would like you to take on new challenges without fear.

-

Nobuo HARUNA
President, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
April 4, 2026