[Special Feature: 30 Years of SFC] Roundtable: Toward an SFC that Leads Global Society

Thank you all for taking the time to be here today. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the founding of SFC, and today we have gathered individuals who studied at SFC as students from the 1st to the 4th graduating classes.

When SFC was founded, terms like internationalization and globalization were just beginning to be used. With the exception of Mr. Hayashi, none of you here are returnee students. However, since you have all gone on to be active overseas after graduation, I would like to hear about what you have done in the sense of SFC being active in the world.

We cannot travel now due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but when I go abroad, many people come up to me and say, "I'm an SFC graduate." I hope today's roundtable discussion will allow us to discover new and interesting aspects of SFC from the perspective of a global society.

First, I would like to ask each of you how you spent your student days. Mr. Yoshiura, what was it like for you?

I was a member of the first graduating class, entering in 1990. On a campus with no upperclassmen, I spent my time doing things like starting clubs with friends who invited me, and since I was interested in politics, I often took related lectures. I had a vague expectation that coming to SFC would allow me to see the countries of the world beyond Japan.

I am originally from Amakusa in Kumamoto and grew up in a place rich in nature, surrounded by the sea and mountains. During high school, I lived in a dormitory at a boys' high school in Kumamoto City. I first learned about SFC in an exam magazine during my second year, and I felt a sense of progressiveness and the future there, which made me really want to go. Once I enrolled, every day was truly stimulating. The various insights, new information, and perspectives presented by the professors were interesting, and I enjoyed being on campus.

From my third year, I joined Professor Atsushi Kusano's research seminar. At the time, Professor Kusano appeared on television frequently, so my relatives in the countryside were very happy. In the spring semester of my third year, I studied Japan's ODA intensively, and during the summer vacation, I went on a research seminar trip to inspect Japan's ODA projects in Thailand and Bangladesh.

After that, I mainly studied the U.S. Congress and Japan-U.S. relations, staying in the Kusano seminar through my master's course before joining Kyodo News.

Did you request to go to Washington with Kyodo News?

Yes. I wanted to use what I studied at university in my work, so a posting to America was my hope from the time I joined the company. If you produce results in the political news department, opportunities come around, so I conducted my reporting activities with that goal in mind.

Fortunately, in the political news department, I started by covering Prime Minister Koizumi during the postal privatization election, and after that, I was in charge of foreign policy and national security, which I am interested in, for a long time. Then, from the summer of 2013, I was given the opportunity to go to Washington. I covered the Department of Defense and the White House during the second term of the Obama administration.

So it went exactly as planned. Mr. Kato, you are a baseball player who has played in the Chicago Cubs' minor league system, but what were your student days like?

I originally developed an admiration for Keio after watching the Waseda-Keio rivalry on TV, and I simply wanted to join the Keio baseball team.

In the case of my high school, everyone goes to university through general entrance exams, but when you're playing high school baseball, there's really no time to study, so I thought I'd have to spend a year as a ronin (waiting for the next year's exams). The Keio baseball team has a study session for high school students in the summer. At other universities, they have what's called a 'selection,' and if your skills are recognized there, you can enter the university directly. But you can't get into Keio that way, so they gave us detailed guidance on studying for the entrance exams.

That was the first time I heard the term 'AO entrance exam.' I didn't know about it until then, but I heard there was a place called SFC where you could do computer stuff. I had always liked computers. It was a time when the word 'Internet' wasn't even familiar yet, but I thought I might be able to do something interesting if I went there, so I took the AO entrance exam for SFC.

However, for the AO exam—and it's still the same now—players who were active at Koshien or famous players who would later turn professional come to take it. I thought I wouldn't pass, but I managed to get in. Looking back, I think they evaluated not just my baseball or sports performance, but what I really wanted to do at SFC and what I had done up to that point.

After enrolling, you were the captain of the baseball team, right?

Yes, I was in the year sandwiched between two star players: Taisei Takagi (SFC graduate, formerly of Seibu) above me, and Yoshinobu Takahashi (formerly of the Giants) below me. I always felt it was an amazing thing to be able to play baseball with these people.

When I graduated, there was a path to continue playing baseball, but I felt I had unfinished business at SFC and wanted to study programming, so I went on to graduate school. It was right around the time Ichiro's team lost to Nomura's 'ID Baseball' in the Japan Series, so I thought that if data analysis progressed, sports would change.

However, the president of the data analysis company I was doing joint research with told me, "It's a waste, go play baseball in America one more time." That flipped a switch inside me, and I went to America. Using the sports academy in Florida where Kei Nishikori also was as a base, I kept taking minor league tryouts.

At first, I couldn't get a contract, but it just so happened that Leon Lee, who used to be active in Japanese professional baseball, came to the academy as a scout for the Chicago Cubs. He said, "Are you Japanese? If it's the Cubs, I'll sign you right now." I was really lucky, but that's how I fortunately played in the Cubs' minor leagues for two years.

Next, Ms. Hirose, what were your student days like?

It was a four-year period where I simply couldn't help but enjoy SFC. To begin with, the reason I chose SFC was that during my high school years, Perestroika was being promoted in the Soviet Union, and at the same time, the Eastern European revolutions were spreading like dominoes. I was greatly intrigued by those movements. I wondered why such changes spread all at once.

To clarify that, international politics alone wasn't enough. When I was wondering what to do, there was this brand-new campus called SFC, and I thought I might be able to study various things comprehensively there. At the time, Professor Ken'ichi Tominaga, who was famous for social change theory and modernization theory, was there. I thought my questions might be resolved if I studied comprehensively under him. Then I learned there was an AO entrance exam, and fortunately, I was able to enroll.

I was also in the second graduating class, and since many parts of the school buildings were still under construction, I took pride in the fact that we were building the campus. Classes were fun, being at the university was stimulating every day, and I was fully immersed in SFC life, even doing a part-time job as an SFC guide, showing guests around the campus.

I took a truly diverse range of classes. In addition to Professor Ken'ichi Tominaga's research seminar, I also audited and participated in the seminars of Professor Michio Umegaki, Professor Takashi Fujii, and Professor Yoichi Ito, pursuing what I wanted to do by studying various fields.

Actually, about two weeks after entering university, I was able to go to a lecture by Gorbachev. The day after I enrolled, I saw a public call on the SFC bulletin board, submitted an essay, and was allowed to participate as a representative of Keio. I met him and shook his hand, and I felt an incredible aura.

But six months later, the August Coup occurred, and by the end of the year, the Soviet Union had collapsed. Because of that, my interest in the Soviet region faded, and in the latter half of my undergraduate years, I became more interested in international politics in general and changes in Asia. Conversely, I believe that having learned many things through that process helped create the foundation for looking at the world broadly.

Mr. Hayashi, you went from Chutobu Junior High School through Juku High School and then to the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, right?

Yes. My family had been in the Keio School of Medicine since my great-grandfather's generation. So, I have Keio graduates throughout my relatives. My father also graduated from the medical school of a university in Taiwan, but he was allowed into Keio Hospital as a clinical research doctor.

I grew up in Taiwan until the fourth grade of elementary school. At that time, due to the Nixon Shock and the impact of Taiwan (Republic of China) withdrawing from the UN, many Taiwanese were sending their children overseas. Also, my parents wanted me to enter the Keio School of Medicine, so I was sent to Japan in the fourth grade to take the junior high school entrance exams. Nintendo's Famicom had come out in Japan, and I was personally just fascinated by the Famicom, but fortunately, I was able to enter Chutobu Junior High School.

Even at Juku High School, I was pressured to concentrate on getting into the School of Medicine and wasn't even allowed to join a club. I admired the regatta and really wanted to join the rowing club, but eventually, it became clear that my grades weren't sufficient to go to the School of Medicine.

At that time, since I lived in Fujisawa, I went to an SFC campus information session on my way home. The Dean of the Faculty of Policy Management at the time, Hiroshi Kato, told us, "You are international students from the future." He said that with a completely new curriculum featuring subjects like information processing, foreign languages, and fieldwork, we could freely and flexibly create our own scholarship. He said that with a faculty brought in from overseas and the campus's cutting-edge computer network, it would feel almost like going to an overseas university. I was instantly captivated, thinking this was amazing.

How was it after you entered?

Since my family home was nearby, I stayed at the Media Center (library) until the last bus, taking whatever classes I liked regardless of whether they were Environment or Policy. In addition to most of the information processing classes, I took Jiro Tamura's international law, Atsushi Kusano's politics, Heizo Takenaka's economics, and Mitsuaki Okabe's international finance. Of course, I also took Jun Murai's classes. My seminar was Masaru Tomita's life sciences. I absorbed everything like a sponge.

From the latter half of my third year to my fourth year, I also audited the entrepreneurship program hosted by Cornell University and the Industrial Bank of Japan, coordinated by Mitsuyo Hanada. I audited Kiyonori Sakakibara's classes on corporate strategy and innovation, and since my background is Taiwanese, I also audited Tomoyuki Kojima's regional studies seminar. In that way, I satisfied my curiosity and thirst for knowledge.

Looking back, it was an environment where I could virtually experience a future 10 or 20 years ahead, removing the boundaries between cutting-edge IT and academic disciplines, allowing my imagination to expand.

Next, I'd like to hear about your respective overseas experiences. When I first lived in America as a researcher, I felt like I understood America, but I didn't understand it at all, and I had a hard time. It was right when 9/11 happened, and it felt like my life changed. Mr. Yoshiura, how was America for you?

My posting to Washington in 2013 was my first opportunity to live in America. There were certainly things I only saw and learned after living there. To put it simply, I felt that it is a country where people of many ethnicities and diverse values gather, and it is a country that is inherently divided to some extent. I think traditional American presidential elections were an attempt to integrate that divided state once every four years.

The presidential election that was supposed to integrate the division went in a different direction in 2016, didn't it? What was it like seeing it up close?

I had returned to Japan by the time Trump finally won the 2016 presidential election, but during my posting, I covered things like the Republican primaries. When Trump made outrageous remarks at rallies and other venues, the venue would be filled with laughter or smirks. When I asked fellow reporters, they said that men drinking at pubs were watching scenes of Trump speaking on TV, hitting the bar counter and laughing hysterically.

In other words, he was saying what many people were thinking in their hearts but weren't supposed to say, breaking the manners and morals expected of a celebrity who governs a country. This was likely accepted positively by some people as him being an "honest man."

However, I didn't think Trump would go as far as winning the presidential election, so the result of that election was unexpected.

Was living in Washington as a correspondent for Kyodo News as you had imagined?

Since the time is exactly opposite to Japan, in terms of newspaper working hours, I would work in the morning in Washington while being conscious of the deadline for the morning edition of Japanese newspapers. Then, during the day, from the evening over there, it becomes the work for the morning edition in Japan. Keeping that in mind, from late afternoon to night, I would imagine the situation in Japan half a day ahead and write manuscripts for the morning edition.

If that didn't go well, I would end up working from the middle of the night into the early morning, so at first, how to secure sleep was a very big challenge, but my body and mind gradually got used to it. I feel like I was able to get through that well with some ingenuity.

Looking back, everything I did for work in Washington was so interesting that I became immersed in it. Because of that, I didn't have much time to go out for meals, and the frequency of eating cup noodles increased significantly compared to when I was in Japan.

On the other hand, I feel like Mr. Kato was seeing a completely different America.

Even though I say America, I was in Arizona and Florida for quite a long time for spring training. The league was the New York-Penn League, which spanned the states of New York and Pennsylvania.

Could you speak English to begin with?

To be honest, it wasn't that great (laughs). The first time I went to America was for the baseball team's American tour during my third year of university. At that time, an SFC senior told me, "If you've been doing SFC English, you'll be fine." I wondered if that was true, but in SFC English classes, you can't speak a word of Japanese, right? So, I had developed a habit of having to speak in English no matter what. Because of that, I think SFC students were able to adapt quite well.

When SFC was founded, I heard that Professor Takao Suzuki said it wasn't English, but "Englic." I experienced firsthand that English where you just need to be able to speak is what's important.

The place I went on that American tour was Mesa, Arizona, which is just below Phoenix, and that was the home base for the Chicago Cubs' minor league. I thought I would never go there again, but miraculously, I ended up going to the same place.

As for life in the minor leagues, Mr. Yoshiura mentioned eating nothing but cup noodles, but our team's sponsor was Subway, and it was all-you-can-eat, so we had Subway almost every day. A minor leaguer's starting salary is $800 a month, so I didn't want to spend money, and since we had games every day, there was no time to actually go out. It was really just Subway all the time, to the point where I think I'm done with Subway for life (laughs).

So, you don't go to the Subway on campus now?

That's right. But the ones in Japan are delicious (laughs). I managed to play one season of baseball without being released, but during spring training the following year, the management changed completely. I thought I'd be able to play this season too, but on March 31st—I'll never forget it—the day before the season was to start, I was released.

In the old movie "Major League," when you open your locker, there's a red paper stuck there that says "Released." In my case, there was actually a Post-it note stuck there, and I was actually moved, thinking, "Oh, so this is it" (laughs). I was 23 or 24 at the time, and at that age, if you're not close to the majors, you get cut.

Mr. Kato, you were doing research on why a baseball appears to stop mid-air. Did your experience in America lead to that?

Yes. I actually entered graduate school to research programming and data analysis, but I wanted to pursue the mysterious experiences I encountered while playing baseball.

I was very interested in things like entering the "zone," and Professor Tadahiko Fukuda, who was researching vision at SFC at the time, told me, "What you're doing is amazing from an academic perspective." That was the first time I realized that what I had been doing could become an academic theme.

Professor Fukuda said, "People talk about 'the pen and the sword' (Bunbu Ryodo) as two separate paths, but they are not two paths; if you pursue them to the end, they are actually one." I believe I am who I am today because of those words.

Ms. Hirose, you entered the path of a researcher after finishing your undergraduate studies. What was the trigger for you to study the Caucasus region instead of Russia or Moscow?

Actually, at first, I thought I would become an international civil servant after finishing my master's at SFC. However, the professors all told me that even if you become an international civil servant, you'll just be sent to war zones or remote areas of Africa, and it won't last even if you get married. They said that especially for women who might want children, being a researcher where you can adjust the pace of your life is better.

On the other hand, since I was in the second graduating class at the time, while a graduate school had been established at SFC, Doctoral Programs had not yet been created. So, I took the exam for the researcher training course at the Graduate Schools for Law and Politics at the University of Tokyo, and fortunately, I passed.

When I entered graduate school, I intended to do international politics broadly, but international politics is quite elusive, so I felt it would be better to firmly decide on a research region and use that as a perspective. So, the first reason was that I wanted to go with the former Soviet region, which I was originally drawn to, but since there were already a fair number of experts on Russia, I wanted to focus on a region that no one else was doing.

Also, as a second reason, I wanted to research ethnic conflicts in the former Soviet Union, and among the many ethnic conflicts, there was one conflict that looked distinct. That was the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia. All other conflicts in the former Soviet Union were civil wars, but Nagorno-Karabakh alone was a "war" between the states of Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Armenians are scattered all over the world as a diaspora, and they aggressively voice their position in English and French. So, at a glance, only information favorable to Armenia enters your field of vision. However, looking at the actual essence of the conflict, Russia was supporting Armenia, so the Armenian side had the advantage and was occupying 20% of Azerbaijan's territory. Despite that, the U.S. was also imposing economic sanctions on Azerbaijan, excluding humanitarian aid, due to the influence of the Armenian lobby.

I thought that was too unfair and that I wouldn't be able to grasp the essence unless I researched it from the Azerbaijani side as well. So, I wanted to study on-site and conduct research from a neutral standpoint.

I was selected as a member of the first class of the United Nations University's Akino Memorial Fellowship and was given the opportunity to research in Azerbaijan for over a year. From there, I have conducted research on the Caucasus, centered on Azerbaijan, and by extension, regional studies of the former Soviet Union.

What foreign languages did you study as an undergraduate?

I took intensive English. For Russian, there was only a basic level. I think this is still not good even now that I've become a faculty member. In the current SFC, there isn't a single Slavic language.

Since Russian is also an official language of the UN, I think it should be there. Since Russian was insufficient at SFC, I studied it independently by attending the Keio Gaigo and the Nikolai Institute.

What was life like in Azerbaijan?

At the time, there were simply no Japanese people, so when I walked down the street or rode the subway, people stared at me so intensely it felt like they were boring holes into my body. I really hated that. Also, it seemed they thought all Japanese people were rich, so the demands for bribes were incredible.

It was worst especially when I tried to cross the border into Georgia for research; about ten border guards would line up and all point their gun barrels at me. They rummaged through all my luggage and took all the money they found. I was treated like a terrorist, and I lived a life drinking muddy water with refugees in refugee camps; I truly had many different experiences.

I lived in the center of the capital, Baku, and when I woke up in the morning, the first thing I did was store water. Water only came out in the morning and late at night. Moreover, the water was pink, and if I did laundry, it was such a strong color that white T-shirts would turn pink. Power outages also occurred frequently, so I got used to living by candlelight.

Through my life in Azerbaijan, I gained the confidence that I can survive anywhere.

You have had some amazing experiences. I heard that Mr. Hayashi also went wandering after finding a job.

The wandering happened after I changed companies about twice, but before that, immediately after graduation, I went to study abroad in Seattle, USA. With a groundless confidence, I went thinking that returning from America would further refine me, but I ended up returning after a spectacular failure.

One aspect was language; my TOEFL score improved rapidly in the first six months, but it plateaued after that. At that time, I felt for the first time that there are things humans cannot achieve even if they try their best.

Also, there were about 30 companions who went from Japan to study abroad with me, and they were all sorts of people. Spending the curriculum together made me realize that even among international students from Japan, our awareness and values were fundamentally different.

Furthermore, I lived with a host family there, and the fact that their lifestyle and views on family were so different was a shock. In Japan, I lived with my grandparents and led a disciplined, good old-fashioned Japanese life. However, the family I stayed with for the first six months presented shocking situations: a host mother who was so focused on her own love life that she neglected child-rearing, and a son who started inhaling drugs because his heart was unfulfilled in a chaotic home.

In contrast, the family I lived with in the latter half had adopted a girl who had suffered severe disabilities due to child abuse by drug-addicted parents; through the family's deep love, she miraculously became able to live independently. Being shown both the unexpected depth of America's heart and its state of devastation, my values and preconceptions were violently shaken.

After repeating such failures and conflicts, I returned to Japan and found a job. First, I spent three years at a foreign consulting firm, and then about three years at Sony's in-house consulting firm. I was so busy that I couldn't attend my friends' weddings or be present at my grandfather's deathbed. I wondered if it was okay to keep working like this, and I also wanted to find the meaning of being a Taiwanese person living in Japan and re-examine my values once more, so I boarded the Peace Boat.

There were all kinds of people there too—film directors, university professors, nurses, women working in the nightlife industry, investment bankers, and pachinko parlor employees. In that environment, I lived and socialized with them on the ship for three months, forming friendships that transcended generations and professions.

Traveling around various countries that way, I even went to Colonel Gaddafi's house in Libya. Since he was trying to appeal to foreigners by showing how his house had been bombed by the US military, I wrote "independence and self-respect" in the guestbook and had debates with Libyan diplomats.

I was able to meet many different people, and there were countries with different religious and historical views, as well as various positions and systems. It was a journey that made me think in a multi-faceted and multi-perspective way about how each person makes choices and lives within those contexts.

A while ago, it was often said that Japanese people had stopped studying abroad. But looking at students today, it has become much easier to go overseas compared to 20 or 30 years ago, and many kids go for short terms.

In such a context, the term "global talent" is often used, but I feel uneasy about what global talent actually is. I wonder if such a thing really exists.

Even looking at the four of you here, you have all followed completely different paths, so I don't think we can collectively call you "global talent." I believe each individual accumulates various experiences and connects them to their career, but what kind of advice would you give to current students?

When living in a global world, how has your experience at SFC been useful, or not useful? From now on, many people will be coming into Japan, and I think a new form of globalization will begin. What are your thoughts on that?

I think SFC has been a place where returnees—so-called "kikoku"—and "otaku" have stood out since its inception. When those people went out into society, they were sometimes treated as heretics, but at least while they were at SFC, neither they nor those around them felt they were that heretical. After 30 years, those people no longer look like heretics in today's Japanese society; rather, they are being recognized as useful talent.

When you are in the minority, you are called a heretic, but if that is evaluated and you become the majority, you are called a reformer or a revolutionary. In that sense, I feel that the atmosphere and human relationships that existed within SFC 30 years ago have permeated society, and a kind of quiet revolution is currently underway.

On the other hand, what I feel from being on the front lines of reporting every day is that values are diversifying, and it's becoming difficult to say, "This is the correct answer." In that context, I am consciously working on showing perspectives—such as why this is the most important news today or how I want people to view this event—and presenting new options as one of the major roles of the media today.

In a world of diverse values, I believe that society undergoing globalization requires people who don't just learn "this is the value" from others, but think for themselves about what is valuable, communicate that to others, and contribute to someone's happiness by realizing something.

So, I definitely want people to go abroad from Japan, but looking back 30 years, I feel that the fact that SFC itself is a global society is perhaps even more valuable.

When I go to the ministries in Kasumigaseki, they tell me that SFC kids are very interesting and useful. It certainly feels like the world has caught up, or rather, an atmosphere has emerged suggesting that this way is more interesting and correct.

When I entered SFC, I thought that a curriculum that removed the frameworks of academic disciplines and forced you to choose them at your own responsibility was actually a harsh environment. You are given freedom and then must create your own axis or your own scholarship. I had a sense of crisis during my student days that if I didn't do that, I would become a nobody upon graduation.

I think those experiences were good. There might be side effects in the process, but that's exactly why you end up thinking about what you're interested in or who you are. I think during the SFC era, I was made to use my head a lot to think about those things. It wasn't just about studying; I was asked what was important to me. I feel that everyone who can create the future across borders has this personal axis within their connections with others.

There is a businessman named Dan Osano who went from Keio Yochisha Elementary School to Chutobu Junior High School, graduated from SFC High School, and left the Doctoral Programs at the Graduate School of Economics after earning the required credits. He is a multi-talented person also known as a poet and novelist, and he said that SFC is the place that embodies the spirit of Keio University left by Yukichi Fukuzawa.

According to him, at Keio, they spoke of jitsugaku (science), independence and self-respect, and "learning while teaching, teaching while learning." He said that SFC is actually the place that practiced these three things in their complete form.

Independence and self-respect is exactly right; SFC is a place where you have to manage to create your own scholarship. I have high expectations for it being a place that not only removes the frameworks of academic disciplines but also the frameworks of countries and generations.

Professor Hirose is the Director of the SFC Media Center, and Professor Kato is in a position like the head of physical education; both have struggled greatly with this COVID-19 situation. There were questions about whether physical education classes could be done online, and for Professor Hirose, overseas fieldwork has become difficult.

In an era that has promoted globalization, it feels like our hands and feet are being tied by the pandemic. What are your thoughts on the front lines of education?

I also traditionally held the view that to do international research, you must go to the site. After all, I think there are many things you can only experience because you went there. Eating local food, feeling the air, sensing the standard of living at a supermarket.

For example, even if you talk to people overseas online, in a world that can only be seen within the scope of being online, what you can see is limited. This connects to the talk about global talent, but I think going to the site is very important when it comes to acting globally.

My motto when going abroad is a borrowed phrase from Sadako Ogata: "Understand." "Understand" means to comprehend, but to understand, you have to look from a perspective lower than the other person. For example, if I go to Azerbaijan and say the living standard is low and look at it from a top-down perspective, I will stop seeing what needs to be seen. I think there are many things you can only understand by looking from below.

In addition, I think you can only truly be active globally by having a good balance of both the flexibility to "do as the Romans do" when in Rome, and the strength not to lose your own axis as a Japanese person while immersing yourself in the other culture. The same goes for the COVID-19 issue; it's important to be equipped with the flexibility and resilience to manage crises when the unexpected happens, and I think SFC students are relatively well-equipped in that regard.

In my seminar, there are students who take a leave of absence to travel around the world or who have gone to Bosnia and Herzegovina for a long term, and they are living robustly in various places. I think global literacy is gradually acquired through such experiences, so the current era where online interaction is forced has become a very difficult time for nurturing future global talent.

First, I just pray that COVID-19 subsides quickly and an environment where we can freely go abroad returns, but while we can't see how many years the current situation will last, I think a greedy attitude will be required—reading between the lines of conversation using online tools, doing something like the old "Kremlinology," and understanding worlds unknown to oneself while getting close to the other person.

Professor Kato, I think you struggled a lot, such as having students create SFC calisthenics, but what are your thoughts?

Looking back, when I went to America, I felt like a representative of Japan. Although I'm not a typical Japanese person, I wondered if I had to say Japanese-like things or teach people how to hold chopsticks, and I feel like my world gradually expanded from there.

Thinking about it now, I think it was good that I thought about my identity—what I am—while I was at SFC.

This also connects to the research on vision that I am currently doing; I think it's very important to have not just a spatial perspective but a temporal perspective—thinking about where I am now and what I should do next. That connects to the idea of "thinking about the future, not the present" that SFC has considered since its founding, and I feel it's exactly the phrase "students from the future."

One of the philosophies of SFC is "problem discovery" and "problem solution." Instead of being given a problem by someone or being taught the correct answer, you find the problem yourself and think of the solution yourself. It is required at SFC that learning the knowledge and techniques for that is a matter of course. I think the students responded to that very well. In that sense, I think SFC naturally had a global orientation.

With the COVID-19 situation, I truly feel the importance of moving the body and the mind once again. Yukichi Fukuzawa left the writing "Shin-tai Ken-ko Sei-shin Katsu-patsu" (Healthy Body, Active Spirit). The idea that the body should be healthy and the spirit should be active. That remains as the most important thing in the philosophy when the Wellness Center was established at SFC, and I am still exploring how to move the body and maintain mental health even in the COVID-19 situation.

After all, I think the most important thing is "jinkan kosai (society)." While emphasizing independence and self-respect, Yukichi Fukuzawa said that the importance of socializing with others, even though one is an individual, is equally important. So, I thought a lot about how to achieve communication in online classes.

In the spring semester, we tried various things like everyone making the calisthenics I mentioned earlier or connecting through apps, but I think the fundamental point is how to realize jinkan kosai precisely because of this situation.

As members of the 1st, 2nd, and 4th graduating classes, you are tasked with the role of leading as SFC's front-runners forever, and your way of life is the very result of SFC. How do you envision the future 10 or 20 years from now? Also, what do you expect from current students? I'd like to have a final word from each of you.

After the Peace Boat, I joined a trading company and worked at Mitsui & Co. until three years ago. After that, I went to an internet venture, and during that time, I also experienced being stationed in Taiwan and Beijing.

Then, by chance, I returned to Taiwan. An individual investor to whom I transferred a business during my trading company days is now the owner of King's Town Bank and Taiwan Pulp & Paper Corp., where I am now, and I am in a position of following him, as he has a management philosophy that emphasizes sociality and ties with the community. In this uncertain and diverse era, Japan, where peer pressure is excessively strong, will inevitably require individuals to make judgments, and the initiative to face one's own integrity and true role will be demanded whether one likes it or not.

Japanese companies create three-year or five-year plans where they make detailed plans through a consensus system and then just execute them under everyone's responsibility, but neither China nor Taiwan creates such things. Since it's natural for unexpected changes to occur, they are flexible and adaptable, tolerant of people and things, speedy, and strong against change. In times of emergency, those who can do so take the lead with courage and carry things out with a sense of the whole and transparency. There is a kind of resilience—a shrewdness and grit that prevents them from staying down after a fall. I think such things will inevitably permeate Japanese society more and more.

Until a few years ago, I was practicing "sontaku" (conforming to others' unspoken wishes) in Japan, but through my experiences in Taiwan and China, I feel recently that I have undergone a "transformation," to use a trendy word. As I work between Japan and Taiwan, and Japan and Asia, I imagine that 10 years from now, I will have changed into someone on the side of creating such things together.

Speaking with some self-reflection, when I first started researching conflict, I wanted to be a person who researched and spoke from a neutral standpoint, but as I continue conflict research, that has become extremely difficult.

In terms of the relationship between Azerbaijan and Armenia, I inevitably end up being positioned as something like an advocate for Azerbaijan. Furthermore, I have also been positioned as an ally of countries hostile to Russia; for example, during the Ukraine crisis, I started speaking at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan with the Ukrainian ambassador, and naturally, I am viewed critically by Russia. That goes against my original intention of wanting to research neutrally, so it feels very uncomfortable.

At the same time, I have always hoped that Japan could contribute more to peace in various countries from a neutral standpoint. For the past few years, I have had opportunities to offer opinions on the former Soviet region to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and I am actually involved in policy. However, in actual diplomacy, Japan also has to be mindful of Russia, making it difficult to act neutrally.

That is very regrettable. Since I am just one researcher with little power, I think it's difficult to contribute to mediating peace, but I want to become able to contribute to peace more substantially, not just by writing papers.

Even if I can't do it myself, I want to nurture talent who can support it and work with the government so that the Japanese government can play such a role. Toward 10 and 20 years from now, I want to first nurture such talent through education at SFC.

I have a desire to look at and create a new world of sports. I've been researching e-sports since about the year before last, but since it's like the polar opposite of conventional sports, people in the sports world tell me, "You betrayed us" (laughs). But I think the virtual world will probably advance further in the future.

Recently, even elementary school students are communicating normally in English with people overseas while playing e-sports. In a world where such things actually exist, I think we need to re-examine "what it means to do sports."

Since Keio University doesn't have a Faculty of Sports Science to begin with, I hope there will be a place within Keio where people interested in research on sports and moving the body can gather. People researching fields unrelated to sports can conversely provide interesting perspectives, so I think the ability to do that is a characteristic of Keio University.

Also, I want the Athletic Association to develop in a new form. Recently, students have joined the baseball and volleyball clubs not as players, but as analysts. I think that's a very new trend and very interesting. I think it's important to create a place where students can do research and also be active in practice.

Furthermore, regarding wellness, which SFC has emphasized since its establishment, I want students to understand why there are subjects like physical education and physical and mental wellness, rather than just taking the classes. In the 90s, when university deregulation occurred, many universities removed physical education from their requirements, but conversely, there is now a trend saying that physical education is important. I hope SFC can take the lead in promoting that aspect.

I don't know what will happen to major media like the one I'm in 10 years from now, but I still believe the role of news agencies is significant. Constantly broadcasting news in real-time. This relates to one of my formative experiences when SFC was created—being connected to the world via a network and immediately knowing what was happening in the world.

Precisely because it is an era overflowing with various information, I want to continue the work of prioritizing information in my own way and providing the materials for judgment so that everyone can live better. The "future" of the era in which we, the students from the future, live is happening now, and the future for us will continue. I'm truly glad I was a student from the future.

When I think about why SFC was so much fun, one reason is that it was overflowing with "intellectual excitement." Another is probably that the people were interesting. Current students are surely experiencing that too. I really want them to understand that this is a period when they are accumulating something irreplaceable within their own bodies through such learning and involvement with people.

The things obtained there, the things felt from the people met, and the things that became one's strength will probably be very big hints and powers when thinking about how to live after graduation. I expect that SFC will become such a place even more so than it has been in the past.

To add one thing, I think the reason I had so much fun for those four years was that the professors generously devoted their own time to the students. At that time, there were fewer students and classes, so I think the professors had more leeway, but for example, Professor Tomoyuki Kojima, who was my advisor, would call me directly and say, "I'm free, so set up a drinking party," in that kind of casual tone.

Nowadays, we are too busy and don't have that kind of leeway, do we? We have office hours and ask people to email in advance, but in the old days, there was a relaxed atmosphere where you were allowed to go to the lab anytime without an appointment.

I think all the professors are very busy now and have completely lost that kind of leeway. I just thought it would be nice if we could once again embody a relaxed SFC that reminiscent of that former situation.

I want to regain the good parts, add new things, and make it a good campus.

University life is only four years. But all four of you said today that those mere four years were fun, and I think it was a good era.

I don't know if current students will think they lost half a year of these four years to the COVID-19 pandemic, or if they will think it was a precious half-year of continuing to take classes online, but I hope they return to campus, spend a student life that is fun and overflowing with intellectual excitement, and 30 years later be able to say, "Ah, those were the good old days."

We want to continue our efforts to make that happen. Thank you all for taking the time out of your busy schedules today.