Bono (U2): Foreigners Who Visited Keio University

2018/05/01

At the commemorative lecture

From October 2007 to September 2011, I served as the Dean of the Faculty of Law at the Juku. During this time, I recommended three individuals for honorary doctorates from the faculty. To be honest, I had been slightly dissatisfied with the way honorary doctorates had been awarded until then. The conventional pattern was often a passive case where we were first approached by the government or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and simply accepted the suggestion. There were even instances where, despite reaching the stage of approval by the faculty council, the individual later declined the honor. Based on these experiences, I wondered if we could adopt a more proactive approach where we ourselves identify and propose suitable candidates.

One of the individuals to whom I awarded an honorary doctorate during my tenure as Dean was Professor Klaus Stern of the University of Cologne in Germany. Professor Stern is a master of German constitutional and public law, and the Faculty of Law owed him a great debt, as several legal scholars from Keio University had studied under him.

Another was Joseph Nye, University Distinguished Service Professor at the Harvard Kennedy School. Professor Nye's name is known to everyone. He is a leading scholar representing our era in the field of international politics, known for his theories on soft power, and he also had experience handling actual East Asian policy in high-ranking government positions. Professor Nye has many acquaintances in Japan, including many affiliated with Keio University. I myself had the opportunity to work with him for several years on a quasi-governmental Japan-U.S.-China relations project.

And the third person was the world-famous rock musician, Bono of U2. Bono's real name is Paul David Hewson. Born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1960, he formed a rock band in high school, which was named U2 in 1979, and he became its lead vocalist. "Bono" is his nickname. Since then, U2 has won 22 Grammy Awards. This is the highest record in the history of rock bands worldwide, and they have swept various other music awards across the globe. In other words, U2 is a group at the pinnacle of rock music in our time, and Bono still reigns at its peak.

Why did Keio University decide to award an honorary doctorate to such a global rock star? To be honest, I personally did not know much about Bono until then; I had heard U2's music, but I wasn't a die-hard fan. To explain how it came to be, one must not forget the mediator.

The person who connected Bono and Keio was the late Tadashi Yamamoto, President of the Japan Center for International Exchange (JCIE). Mr. Yamamoto was a mastermind of private international exchange who connected Japan and the world, perhaps even better known globally than in Japan. He was a person of character who possessed a charm befitting the title "apostle of civil diplomacy." I myself had been invited to international conferences by Mr. Yamamoto many times since the 1990s, and he was a mentor of international exchange for me as well.

For five full years from 2004 to 2008, the Faculty of Law established the "Eiichi Shibusawa Memorial Foundation Endowed Chair," planned and operated jointly by Mr. Yamamoto's JCIE and the faculty members, with financial support from the Eiichi Shibusawa Memorial Foundation. As a result, this course for students began in 2004 and continued for five years with themes such as "Aiming for New Nation Building" (FY2004), "Administrative Reform in Japan: Adjusting the Division of Roles between Government and Civil Society" (FY2005), "The Role of Civil Society in East Asia" (FY2006), and "Civil Society Creating a Japan that Contributes to the World" (FY2007). For the final year, the overall theme was decided as "Global Issues and the Role of the Individual."

While the theme for FY2008 was set, close consultations were held with Mr. Yamamoto and Ms. Hideko Katsumata, Executive Director of JCIE, regarding the planning and the lineup of lecturers. This year marked the 150th anniversary of the founding of Keio University, which gave it special significance. It was then that Bono's name was suddenly brought up by the JCIE side. While Bono was a world-class musician, he was also globally known as a humanitarian activist. He had been launching one notable activity after another, particularly in support of AIDS and poverty issues in Africa.

Bono's interest in African issues began after participating in the Live Aid concert for the Ethiopian famine in 1985. Later, he joined the Jubilee 2000 movement, which started with the goal of canceling the debts of the world's poorest African nations by the year 2000. In 2002, he co-founded DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa) to actively engage in issues specific to Africa such as debt, AIDS, and unfair trade. In 2004, he launched the ONE Campaign to unify voices under the catchphrase "Make Poverty History." He was also one of the central figures of Live 8, a series of charity concerts held simultaneously around the world in 2005 to coincide with the G8 Summit to support Africa.

Bono further partnered with major corporations like Apple and Microsoft to create mechanisms where a portion of profits would go toward funds for eradicating AIDS. Beyond that, he worked directly and indirectly with world politicians, business leaders, and intellectuals, repeatedly holding meetings with heads of state. As a result of these activities, Bono was awarded a knighthood by the UK in 2007 and the Legion of Honour by France in 2013, and he is said to have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize multiple times.

Neither Mr. Tadashi Yamamoto nor Ms. Hideko Katsumata of JCIE had a direct personal acquaintance with Bono. However, they had participated in some related activities. Upon learning that Bono would visit Japan for TICAD (Tokyo International Conference on African Development), an African support conference led by the Japanese government, they contacted DATA directly to inquire about the possibility of a lecture for this course. Meanwhile, as Dean of the Faculty of Law, I held detailed meetings with the faculty leadership and decided to award him an honorary doctorate. When I consulted with then-President Yūichirō Anzai and Vice-President Taira Nishimura, the Juku authorities also readily agreed.

Based on this, we inquired with Bono about the honorary degree through JCIE and received a reply that he would be happy to accept. Around the time the honorary degree was decided, I listened to U2 songs whenever I had time, sometimes swinging to the rock rhythm, building up my own awareness. In the process, I was drawn into the lyrics, many of which side with the weak and the wounded, and before I knew it, I had become a big fan.

On Tuesday, May 27, 2008, under clear skies, the honorary degree conferral ceremony for a Doctor of Laws was held at the Enzetsukan (Public Speaking Hall) on the Mita Campus. The courtyard leading to the Enzetsukan was crowded with students and media eager to catch a glimpse of Bono. He spoke to the students as he made his way to the hall. During the ceremony, I, as the recommender, first read the reasons for the recommendation.

"Keio University was founded 150 years ago with the philosophy of 'independence and self-respect,' envisioning that citizens could play an even greater role in society. In an increasingly globalized international society, Mr. Hewson has engaged in active and dedicated activities from the standpoint of civil society to solve difficult problems."

Following this, the President presented the diploma to Bono, and the ceremony concluded. The ceremony was also attended by Dr. Sadako Ogata, former UN High Commissioner for Refugees and a close friend of Bono, as well as Mr. Jeffrey Sachs, a world authority on development economics and a Harvard professor who is also a friend of Bono.

Bono's lecture was held in the West School Building Hall, which boasts the largest seating capacity at Mita, and it was packed to capacity. Most of those able to attend were students from the Department of Political Science in the Faculty of Law who were taking the endowed course. Professor Nobuhito Yamamoto of the Faculty of Law served as the moderator. I first explained the background of the lecture, followed by the appearance of "Dr. Bono" on stage. His lecture was powerful in both content and performance; being a rock star, he had great energy, and the audience was swallowed up by the atmosphere. I myself will never forget the sense of elation at that time. I hope you can feel that excitement through a portion of his lecture.

"In the spirit of Keio, and in the tradition of Fukuzawa-sensei, I want to say this... that I have learned not just from books, but from life. Wisdom and knowledge are quite different... I might not be able to say I have both, but what I definitely have is intellectual curiosity."

"Like Ireland, Japan rose from the ruins and built a vibrant and attractive society. The past can shape the present, but you must not let the past dominate the future. From your history, I can understand why you Japanese are modest, but I don't think you should be. I want Japan to come out boldly onto the world stage. There is much to learn from Japan."

"What a privilege it is to be young, to study at Keio University, and to be at the cutting edge of this new generation. You have the chance to completely change the world for the better. I cannot do it alone, but 'we' can. Together we can."

On the occasion of this lecture, Bono gave everyone in the audience a T-shirt with the ONE logo. Even now, having moved to the National Defense Academy, I sometimes wear this T-shirt at events. And my phone still contains several U2 albums, and I occasionally swing to them.

*Affiliations and titles are those at the time of publication.