2022 Portraits of Student Diversity at Keio

Hayakawa spent her high school years in the United States, where she was struck by the tolerance for the LGBTQ+ community. "In Japan, there is little overt discrimination toward LGBTQ+ people, but I suspect that's because many people have little interest in the issue in the first place." Hoping to spark change from within her immediate community, Hayakawa and a group of friends created flyers promoting LGBTQ+ understanding in June 2021, which they distributed in front of Hiyoshi Campus. "I was happy to see such a positive response, with many people saying they would do what they could to help." Hayakawa is also a member of the 2022 Keio Student Conference, which aims to promote the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at Keio University. "We don't just talk about ideals—we act on them. We're working toward affecting real change here at Keio." Hayakawa is enrolled in PEARL, which offers an all-English four-year BA program in economics. She keeps busy studying international security in a seminar at SFC and doing financial research as part of a student group, but her innate initiative helps them breeze through it all.

(Original article published in Portrait in the Winter 2023 (No. 317) issue of Juku.)

Shion started playing tennis at the age of three and has long competed professionally. When he was sixteen, he also became certified as a Class B tennis chair umpire, the youngest person to do so at the time, and has even served as a chair umpire for international matches. "One word from the chair umpire can change the whole mood of a match. It's almost like directing a play," Hotta says. With over ten papers published in different academic journals, both in Japan and internationally, his daily training sessions with fellow tennis club members at Yagami Campus have had a significant impact on his research into sports management. "One study revealed the relationship between how frequently chair umpires supervise matches and their overall satisfaction and was used to improve conditions in the Japan Tennis Association, which resulted in a 10% increase in the number of young chair umpires." Hotta has also received the Koizumi Sports Encouragement Award for his many accomplishments. Upon graduation, his goal is to pursue a career as a lawyer, focusing on resolving challenges in emerging areas of law, including sports and artificial intelligence.

(Original article published in Portrait in the Autumn 2022 (No. 316) Issue of Juku.)

Last November, Harada won second place in the women's épée event at the All Japan Fencing Championships. The former 2019 champion calmly reflects, "More than the result, I am disappointed that I was overwhelmed by the atmosphere of the venue and wasn't able to perform to the best of my ability." Harada started competing in fifth grade after wanting to try a new sport. Eleven years later, she is now a rising star of the next generation. "I find it fascinating to identify the unique traits of my opponent and develop a strategy accordingly," she says. "It is not only a fencer's physical ability but also technique and experience that determines the winner." With her sights set on the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Harada also plans to enter the Keio Law School after graduating early from the Faculty of Law this spring. She hopes to manage a double career as a lawyer and fencer, looking to address the various challenges facing the sports world from a legal perspective to help create an environment where athletes can focus on competing.

(Original article published in Portrait in the Summer 2022 (No. 315) Issue of Juku.)

The people of the Amami Islands were deprived of their culture under the oppressive rule of the Satsuma clan starting in the Edo period and continued to experience adversity throughout the postwar US military occupation of the area. Traditional shima-uta songs from the archipelago tell of the lives and hardships of the Amami people and contain messages for future generations. Naruse began playing the sanshin, a traditional three-stringed banjo-like instrument from the Amami Islands, and performing shima-uta in the third grade and has won prizes in many different competitions. She has also performed shima-uta in Hong Kong as a representative of Kagoshima Prefecture. During high school, Naruse received the Grand Prix at the 3rd International Symposium for High School Students for her research on the depopulation of the Amami Islands. She says that at SFC her goal is "not only to promote Amami culture but also to explore the broader context of the region and its traditional culture." Since coming to Tokyo, she has been busy performing with brass bands, orchestras, and jazz musicians. Naruse says she wants her generation to pay more attention to traditional culture, and this year she also plans to perform internationally.

(Original article published in Portrait in the Spring 2022 (No. 314) Issue of Juku.)

*All affiliations, years, and titles are current as of the time of their respective publication.
*These articles appeared in the 2023 Winter (No. 317), 2022 Autumn (No. 316), 2022 Summer (No. 315), and 2022 Spring (No.314) issues of Juku.