Nobuyuki Tose - Retiring in AY2025

Thirty-two years have flown by since I was appointed to Keio University. I would like to write about some of the enjoyable experiences from that time, in no particular order.

Since becoming the president of the Keio Alpine Verein (KAV) in 2016, enjoyable mountain climbing has been a part of my life. In August 2014, when I boasted during a lecture about having summited Mt. Tsurugi for the second time, a student made fun of it. He claimed that the photo I presented as proof could be faked. I later found out that this student, M, was a member of KAV, and he came to ask me to become the president in the spring of 2016. After accepting, as the KAV president, I received a great deal of support from the executives of the Gakusuikai alumni association, and they also provided me with instruction in mountaineering techniques. I had never done rock climbing or stream climbing before, but by receiving instruction alongside the club members, I became proficient enough to get by. Mr. Ogawa, the alumnus who instructed me, was one of the climbers who stood on the summit during the first ascent of Kondeli Peak (Himalayas), an achievement realized through the full efforts of KAV. He was someone I would normally feel too intimidated to receive instruction from. The most challenging climb I undertook as KAV president was the ascent of Mt. Kita-Hotaka from the East Ridge, commonly known as Godzilla Rock. At that time, I was securely connected to Mr. Ogawa by a rope. I still remember being exhausted after reaching the summit and feeling unsteady on the descent. My first encounter with KAV was through M, but I learned something interesting after talking with the alumni. In 2012, led by a senior from my junior high school, I did a traverse from Mt. Oyama (Tateyama) towards Raichozawa with my second son, who was a first-year high school student at the time. Just before we started descending to Raichozawa via a shortcut called O-hashiri, a Keio mountaineering club was conducting snow training on a snowfield. It seems that was KAV, and I was surprised by this strange connection. The cover photo on my Facebook Page is of the Tateyama Mountain Range, which I took from Raichozawa after descending at that time.

I believe the person I spoke with most often within the Faculty of Economics was Mikio Ito. Our first meeting was around 1994 when we worked together on building the network at the Mita campus. After that, we co-authored a book on mathematical economics and translated an introductory book on derivatives and a book on the statistical matrix language SPLUS. Beyond the mathematical content I explained, he taught me a wide range of knowledge in areas such as microeconomics, macroeconomics, econometrics, and statistics. This is something for which I am particularly grateful. Through my writing activities with Mr. Ito, I also had the opportunity to interact with his junior colleagues like Otsu, Nakato, Noda, Maeda, and Wada, which is a rare experience for an ordinary mathematician. Unlike a typical economist, Mr. Ito was knowledgeable about accounting and copyright, which was a great help to me in promoting the digitization of journals during my tenure as a board member of the Mathematical Society of Japan.