Message from the Dean

The origins of the Faculty of Business and Commerce trace back to Common School Bookkeeping, a pioneering work in Japanese accounting published in the early Meiji period by Yukichi Fukuzawa, a proponent of jitsugaku. Fukuzawa’s concept of jitsugaku was a translation of the term “science.” During the period of great transformation from the late Edo period to the Meiji era, it was necessary to acquire, through knowledge of principles and reasoning, perspectives and ways of thinking that were not confined by limited individual experience.

A similar period of profound upheaval is also unfolding today. As AI (“Artificial Intelligence”) becomes increasingly widespread in society, it is said that many existing occupations will be phased out. I believe that in this context, the first people to see their value diminish will be college students who are only capable of copying and pasting. AI will sometimes hallucinate, and identifying such inaccuracies requires broad-based education and scientific reasoning.

The human brain contains approximately 100 billion neurons and possesses the capability to perform deep learning at a level several orders of magnitude beyond that of the latest supercomputers. We must train this neural network that you all possess to acquire true, non-artificial intelligence. Furthermore, the learning, or “training,” performed by AI involves acquiring information laid out by someone else. As such, the task for university students is to become that “someone” themselves—that is, to conduct research.

The Faculty of Business and Commerce is divided into four major fields: Management and Organization, Marketing Science, Accounting, and Economy and Industry. Accordingly, its key feature is enabling students to explore the same phenomena in industry and the economy from a wide range of perspectives—from a macro viewpoint akin to discovering physical laws, to a micro viewpoint that pays close attention to people’s diversity and feelings. After developing a breath of knowledge through lectures and review of the literature, students take seminars and practical classes to engage in discussions with faculty and peers within a “learning while teaching, teaching while learning” dynamic. This process allows them to sharpen their awareness of specific issues, build hypotheses, and test those hypotheses to explore solutions—the true essence of research.

To use AI rather than be used by it, one must possess a spirit of “independence and self-respect” that combines the ability to discover problems on one’s own, propose solutions, and implement them, along with the high ethical standards and sense of responsibility expected of a leader. Through this kind of education, the Faculty of Business and Commerce aims to cultivate the “human resources” capable of making a contribution to the development of society.