AY 2025 Undergraduate Commencement Ceremony Address

March 23, 2026

Professor Kohei Itoh

President, Keio University

Congratulations to all of you who are celebrating your graduation here today. My warm wishes go to all your family members as well.

Many of you graduating today had to experience COVID-19 during your high school years before entering Keio University in April 2022. The pandemic must have made it difficult to enjoy a normal student life in high school. Yet during your four years at Keio, not only did all classes return to campus, but extracurricular opportunities such as club activities and exchange programs also resumed. In that sense, your class was the first to experience the full range of opportunities and campus life that Keio University offers in the post-pandemic era. This is something that pleases me immensely.

Yet even though the pandemic has subsided, these past four years have been marked by extraordinary upheaval. Four years ago, in February, Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine. At the end of 2022, generative AI was released to the public, transforming artificial intelligence from a tool used only by engineers into one accessible to everyone. As the following year, 2023, drew to a close, war broke out between Israel and Hamas. Following the election of President Trump in 2024, the logic of power politics became increasingly visible in both economic and security affairs, fundamentally altering the behavior of nations around the world. Today, military actions involving Israel and the United States against Iran have created tensions that engulf the broader Middle East region and carry significant repercussions for the global economy. Before the invasion of Ukraine began four years ago, much of the world's attention was focused on how to leave a better society for future generations. Efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including measures to address climate change, were central topics of discussion. Today, however, these concerns often seem to get been pushed aside.

What about Japan? How will future historians look back on the four years that coincided with your university education? I hope that they will remember this period as the moment when Japan began to move beyond the postwar Japanese model.

Let us briefly revisit what that model was. Following its defeat in World War II, Japan pursued a development strategy in which the government took the lead through strong industrial coordination. By promoting manufacturing and exports, the country eventually rose to become the world's largest economy. Under systems of industrial protection and extensive regulation, the government sought to ensure that no one was left behind, supporting struggling companies, small businesses, and farmers alike. However, after the collapse of the economic bubble in the early 1990s, Japan entered a prolonged period of deflation and stagnation often referred to as the "Lost 30 Years." While financial markets and industrial structures around the world were transformed by developments such as the rise of the Internet, Japanese companies found it difficult to break free from the postwar model. When people discussed issues within their circles, conversations often gravitated toward preserving the status quo or making only modest incremental improvements. The government attempted to stimulate growth, even introducing negative interest rates, in hopes of encouraging companies to undertake bold new challenges. Yet investment aimed at generating substantial future returns remained limited, and wages failed to rise significantly. In effect, Japan sought to maintain its existing position while the rest of the world continued to advance. The result was a form of relative decline, a negative trajectory hidden beneath apparent stability.

The country itself had difficulty breaking from this pattern. Despite mounting pressures from declining birthrates, rising social security costs, increasing import prices driven by a weak yen, and lower tax revenues compared to the era of rapid economic growth, policymakers often settled for only making minor adjustments to the postwar framework. By distributing small amounts of resources across numerous interests and industries that might otherwise have declined, Japan has postponed making difficult reforms. Digital transformation has progressed slowly, and a dense web of regulations continues to constrain the growth of emerging sectors.

Nor have the people been entirely free from this mindset. Too often, public debate centers on asking the government to reduce taxes or support particular industries. Rather than embracing bold transformation through their own initiative and effort, many remain hesitant to take risks. Within the postwar Japanese model, people aim for modest goals: attending a good university, joining a good company, earning a reasonable salary, living in an adequately comfortable home, and having a reasonably pleasant family life. If they can check those boxes, they are satisfied. Relatively few people set their sights on the wider world and venture boldly into global research, entrepreneurship, or international markets.

But all of you graduates gathered here today are different. You understand that the postwar Japanese model has reached its limits. You recognize that minor adjustments alone will not be enough. At the same time, the world itself has become increasingly unstable and difficult to predict. Precisely because of this uncertainty, an extraordinary opportunity lies before you: the opportunity to help guide the world in a better direction.

What is absolutely essential, first and foremost, is a high sense of purpose. This means a commitment to continually taking on greater challenges for the sake of your colleagues, for Japan, and for the advancement of the world. What sustains that sense of purpose is curiosity. Rather than simply staying on the tracks that have been laid before you, curiosity compels you to wonder what kind of world awaits if you venture beyond them. It is the excitement of embracing that challenge. That, I believe, is what it means to break free from the postwar Japanese model. If you look up what's the opposite of the word "curiosity," you might find words such as "indifference" or "apathy." Yet in my view, the true opposite of curiosity is "calculation." To be calculating is to act based on a careful assessment of personal gain and loss. But the very fact that one can calculate the outcome means that one is considering only those options whose results are already predictable. People who move forward guided by purpose and curiosity possess a refreshing spirit. They inspire and energize those around them, and naturally earn the support of others. Curiosity is the ability to find something fascinating, even in tasks given by someone else. That is why those of you filled with curiosity will not simply complete the work entrusted to you. You will expand upon it and create something new. You are the kind of person who can say, "This looks interesting. Let's give it a try," while also asking, "Is there a better way?" or "Is there a different goal we should pursue?" It is precisely this drive for improvement that earns the admiration of those around you.

You are also particularly fortunate to be entering the graduating at a time when you have a remarkable ally: artificial intelligence. In both professional work and academic research, much of what previous generations learned from mentors can now be learned from AI. More fundamentally, AI is transforming the very way we work and conduct research. In such an environment, while managers, senior colleagues, and even experts may remain constrained by conventional assumptions, those of you who combine ambition, curiosity, talent, and flexibility will be able to achieve challenges that astonish others by making AI an extraordinarily capable partner in your endeavors.

Moreover, during your years at university, you have met lifelong friends and mentors. Through study abroad, extracurricular activities, part-time work, and countless other experiences, you have developed the interpersonal skills and teamwork necessary to pursue meaningful goals. Every great challenge requires companions who aspire to reach greater heights together. You possess the ability to bring others along naturally and to change the world through collective effort.

In short, the postwar Japanese model, in which people advanced their careers and research largely by following the guidance of their seniors and predecessors, has reached its end. We have entered an era in which you yourselves will create entirely new worlds through your own sense of purpose, curiosity, and abilities. And those new worlds are not confined by the boundaries of Japan. They are global in scope.

Today, here at the Hiyoshi Commemorative Hall, many alumni who graduated from Keio University twenty-five years ago have gathered to celebrate your commencement. They are among the role models to whom you may aspire. These alumni attended Keio from 1997 to 2001. The year 2001, as you know, was marked by the terrorist attacks in the United States, a moment when global peace was profoundly shaken. On the other hand, during those same four years, companies were founded that now shape the world, including Netflix, Google, Salesforce, PayPal, Alibaba, and Baidu. Remarkably, these global giants are almost exactly the same age as all of you gathered here today. In the same way, somewhere in the world at this very moment, a newly founded startup is taking its first steps. Over the next ten or twenty years, it may grow into a company that transforms the world. I therefore encourage you to keep your eyes on emerging startups and bold innovators across the globe. Seek opportunities to collaborate with them, and do not hesitate to consider launching ventures of your own. I sincerely hope that you achieve great success, and that twenty-five years from now, you will return to this commencement ceremony as the role models for a new generation of Keio graduates.

Now, a word about the remarks I have shared with you today. In fact, I drafted this address as my own modern-day adaptation of Yukichi Fukuzawa's An Encouragement of Learning, drawing from the book's structure. I intentionally omitted qualifiers such as "there are different ways of thinking about this" and avoided excessive circumlocution, because I wanted to emphasize the challenges before us and to convey my unwavering confidence that you, as you continue to pursue your aspirations, learning, and bold endeavors, will undoubtedly transform the world as it is today. Allow me, therefore, to conclude with three sayings from Fukuzawa.

The first is: "Support the nation, but do not rely on the nation." To support your colleagues, your country, and the world, you need freedom and independence. Once you begin your careers and research activities, you will likely be surprised by the sheer number of regulations and constraints that exist. Regulations may seem like an abstract concept, but a simple example is the way ball playing has gradually been prohibited in public parks around Japan. When nearby residents complain, the range of activities permitted in public spaces steadily shrinks. Those of us who remember earlier times cannot help but regret the loss of something as simple as playing catch in a park. Yet children who have grown up knowing only parks where such activities are prohibited naturally accept that reality and may never think to question it. Precisely because today's world is changing at an extraordinary pace, we need the freedom to experiment, explore, and try new things, both in our work and in our research. That is why I hope you will continue to advocate for genuine freedom in society, including the relaxation of unnecessary regulations where appropriate.

The second saying I would like to share is: "Those who do not advance inevitably fall behind; those who refuse to fall behind inevitably advance." This means that unless we continue moving forward, we will, in relative terms, move backward. It warns us that maintaining the status quo is, in effect, a form of decline. Never make preserving the status quo your ultimate goal. I have every confidence that you will not.

Finally, let me share the third teaching from Fukuzawa. Today, you cease to be students of Keio and become alumni. Yet in many ways, this is where the real journey begins. As members of the Keio community, you are called upon to continue learning and embracing new challenges throughout your lives, thereby fulfilling the mission that Fukuzawa envisioned for Keio itself:

"Keio University is not merely a place for academic pursuit. Its mission is to be a constant source of honorable character and a paragon of intellect and morals for the entire nation; and for each member to apply this spirit to elucidate the essence of family, society, and nation. They will not only articulate this essence in words, but also demonstrate it in their actions, and by doing so make Keio a leader of society."

Once again, congratulations on your graduation!