Greetings | Jiro Kokuryo (Dean, Faculty of Policy Management)

2009.07.09

Following former Dean Agawa, who has become a Vice-President, I was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Policy Management on July 1. Although I am quite inexperienced, I am committed to doing my best with everyone's support, and I look forward to working with all of you.

As for the important topic of the future direction for SFC, which will celebrate its 20th anniversary next year, I will write about that after I have had some time to study the matter. For this occasion, I would like to introduce myself.

Because my name is unusual, I am often asked where I am from. I am a third-generation resident and fully a Kanto native, but my grandfather was from Omi, where the Kokuryo surname is common. In fact, shortly after coming to SFC, I was surprised to discover online that there was a man named Kokuryo Hanbei Shigeji who was a local magistrate (daikan) of the Fujisawa-juku post town during the Edo period. The connection is unknown. At first, I was worried he might have been a corrupt magistrate like one you would see in *Mito Komon*, but that does not seem to be the case, and I now use it as a conversation starter when talking with local people.

As my father worked for a trading company, I was born in New York, spent my elementary school years in Japan, and my junior high school years in the UK. In the UK, I was in a boarding school. People often say it is like Harry Potter, and it is true that I lived and slept in an old mansion of a school, dressed just like that. My mother even told me, "I thought he looked just like you did back then." However, I could not use magic, of course, and British schools never serve such lavish meals. On the contrary, I was raised in a culture where hunger was considered a part of education.

I spent my high school and university years in Japan, and when I was thinking about finding a job, it was around the time that our first Dean, Hiroshi Kato, was playing an active role in the Second Provisional Commission for Administrative Reform and proposing the privatization of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation. Influenced by my grandfather, who was a communications engineer, and my experience with an overseas internship during my university years, I had an interest in telecommunications, so I decided to join the company, thinking, "I don't want to work for a government office, but it would be interesting if it becomes a private company." After that, I studied abroad for graduate school, came to be affiliated with Keio University, and have now been appointed as his successor, which fills me with deep emotion.

(Posted: 2009/07/09)