April 19, 2018
The 2018 SFC Kick-off Lecture was held on April 5.
The Kick-off Lecture is held annually to provide new students starting their campus life at SFC with a passionate message from distinguished members of society who are their seniors in life.
This year, Mr. Hiroshi Hayakawa (a 1965 graduate of the Faculty of Business and Commerce), President and CEO of Hayakawa Publishing Corporation, gave a lecture titled "A Publisher's Monologue."
He spoke about his experiences, such as supporting the Jamaican team as an official interpreter for English-speaking countries at the 18th Tokyo Olympics, and his travels abroad to acquire translation rights, which led to interactions with many publishers and world-renowned authors including Michael Crichton and Kazuo Ishiguro.
He also shared his interactions with many literary figures in Japan, recounting a particularly precious and vivid memory of a conversation with Yukio Mishima in 1970, just a few months before his suicide.
In the Q&A session after the lecture, in response to a student's question, "What is culture?," he answered, "My encounters with many authors have had a great influence on me over the years. You will all meet many friends and teachers from now on, but the greatest culture comes from interacting with people and reading many books, including classics and Kanbun (classical Chinese)." To another student's question, "In a world where people are moving away from printed paper materials and toward electronic publishing, what do you think will happen to 'printed books' in the future?," he said, "They will not become obsolete. I have heard about the latest survey results that show a trend away from e-books and a return to printed text in the United States. I want to keep an eye on future trends."
Hayakawa Publishing Corporation was founded on August 15, 1945. It introduced foreign mystery and science fiction novels to Japan, focusing on foreign literature by authors such as Graham Greene, Agatha Christie, and Arthur C. Clarke. In recent years, the company has continued its publishing activities in a wide range of fields, including popular science, philosophy, business administration, and children's books, featuring authors such as Stephen Hawking, Michael J. Sandel, and Richard Thaler.
Photo by Satoru Inoue
Posted by: General Affairs (Public Relations) Section, Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC) Office