April 2, 2021
Congratulations to all of you who have been admitted to the Graduate School of Media and Governance. I offer my heartfelt congratulations. At this year's entrance ceremony, we were able to gather with many of you at the venue, albeit for a short time. I am sure that not only you, but all of us, the faculty and staff, were delighted and relieved to have this long-awaited moment, especially when we think back on the past year.
On the other hand, I know some of you are celebrating this day from afar. We are still under the influence of COVID-19, and we must continue to be very careful. You may feel anxious and unsettled for a while. Nevertheless, the milestone of the entrance ceremony brings a sense of brightness, because we were able to welcome you as members of the SFC community.
Your life as a graduate student is about to begin. Recognizing that the Graduate School of Media and Governance has a diverse student body, including many international students and working professionals, we are making arrangements to ensure that you can continue to take courses online. We have also been reviewing procedures and schedules related to degree acquisition and have been working to make them available online as much as possible. Activities on campus are also planned to resume gradually. Please contact your academic advisor to plan your studies for this semester.
From now on, each of you will be required to work on your research independently and autonomously. Especially when you reach the stage of compiling your results, you will spend a lot of time facing yourself. However, we do not continue our research "all alone." Since we have chosen to study at graduate school and have gathered here at the same Graduate School of Media and Governance, I hope we will value new encounters and freely discuss each other's research. Whether online or in person, we must maintain communication. The creativity and ingenuity to do so will also emerge from within that communication.
Always be curious about what is happening now, and maintain an awareness of intellectually improving yourself. Our resilience is being tested. Let's start the spring semester while taking care of our health.
Fumitoshi Kato, Dean, Graduate School of Media and Governance