The AY 2021 Undergraduate Entrance Ceremony was held at the Hiyoshi Commemorative Hall on Thursday, April 1, 2021. It was the first time that the ceremony has been held on Hiyoshi Campus since 2017. A total of 6,462 students newly became members of the Keio community, joining the 10 undergraduate faculties and Japanese Language Program.
In order to give maximum consideration to preventing the spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus disease), the ceremony was divided into 2 sessions, with one held in the morning and the other in the afternoon, while participation was limited to the new students and certain related parties only. Videos of the ceremony were streamed online for all others interested in following the proceedings.
The ceremony began with Provost Tojiro Aoyama giving the Incoming Class Report, which was followed by the welcome address of President Akira Haseyama. In his address, President Haseyama asked the students to question what is considered common sense, and he expressed his hope that they would try to establish an attitude of only drawing conclusions after critically considering matters. Afterward, in the morning session, Professor Kenji Yasuoka of the Faculty of Science and Technology gave a congratulatory speech on behalf of the faculty and staff members and Tetuyoshi Yamada of the Faculty of Science and Technology gave the matriculation address, while in the afternoon session, these were given by Professor Takeo Kuwahara of the Faculty of Policy Management and Ryunosuke Sakamoto of the School of Medicine, respectively.
Finally, there was a presentation of donations and a celebratory address by representatives of the 1971 112 Mita-kai, and the ceremony came to a close with a recording of the Alma Mater, "The Juku-ka."
After the ceremony, an orientation was held by the All Keio Student Senate and a welcome movie for the new students made by the Keio Cheer Group was shown.