The Power to Imagine What Lies Beyond the "Sea"

We now have access to all kinds of words, images, and videos through our smartphone screens to such an extent that familiar phrases like the "sea of information" can no longer fully describe it. The infinite world that flows from nowhere and appears instantly before our eyes through social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, X, Facebook, Threads, YouTube, and Snapchat feels both entirely real and entirely like a dream. As digital natives, you likely swim through this "sea" with ease every day.

However, I would like you to take a moment to imagine the real "sea" once again. Try to visualize the sense of physical expansion that continues beyond the palm of your hand holding your smartphone, out of your room, from your home to the town, to the city, past the prefectural borders, through the coastline at the edge of Japan, and across the ocean. Remember that there are tangible people and things existing beyond that sea, and moreover, that they are constantly active, changing, moving, and interacting.

My specialty is American theater culture and theater history. The act of performing or watching theater is an experience shared at a fixed time and place; theater is an art form anchored to a specific space-time.

At the same time, theater also travels. I first imagined how theater crossed from England to the New World by ship during the colonial period of the 17th century. I researched transatlantic cultural negotiations—how the theater imported in this way was received and how it transformed into unique forms adapted to American conditions. Next, wondering about the sea on the other side, I am now considering the theme of how American theater expanded imperialistically into the Pacific world. Furthermore, I am focusing on what kind of theater crossed the sea from the opposite shore of Japan toward America, and how Japanese and American theater interacted and negotiated.

Just as words, images, and videos travel across the sea of information, people and things also move across the real sea. Nations and citizens, politics and economics, history and culture, thought and religion—nothing stays in one place, and their values are not absolute but fluid and ambiguous.

Therefore, I hope that you will confront the "sea of information" and share your own messages while remaining conscious that there are flesh-and-blood people beyond the information you hold—beyond the real sea—where lives in different languages, ethnicities, and cultures are unfolding. Once you enter university, take various classes and talk to many professors. In addition to studying your major, try attending humanities or natural science classes that pique even a slight interest. This is because broad foundational knowledge and a deep liberal arts education will be a great help in imagining what lies beyond the "sea."

(Published: April 2026)