Sometimes My Photo Appears | Motohiro Tsuchiya, Vice-President / Professor, Graduate School of Media and Governance
2024.02.27
The other day, I had a comprehensive medical checkup. During my last checkup in 2018, the gastroscopy revealed, "You have a lot of scars from stomach ulcers." Looking at the photos, I could see small, scar-like marks. This time, however, they had all disappeared. It's strange. I feel like I've been under more stress than I was six years ago. In 2018, I wasn't even a dean.
One of the stressors since 2020 was, of course, the spread of COVID-19, but that now feels like a distant memory. Not everything has returned to normal, as some university meetings are still held remotely, and some changes will likely remain permanent.
For our faculty's research retreat, we still weren't ready to go back to sleeping together in a large room, so we stayed in individual rooms at a business hotel. Of course, we all gathered in a conference room to discuss our research findings. This time, no one was absent, and no one joined online, which made me feel like things are returning to how they were.
Since we couldn't have a social gathering at the hotel, we went to a nearby izakaya. Although all the students are adults, some don't drink alcohol at all, while others started chugging drinks from the beginning. There was even one eccentric student who started with oolong tea and then switched to beer for their second drink.
At the gathering, I opened a social media account I hadn't used in a long time, took a photo, posted just that one, and then asked for my students' accounts and followed many of them. Looking at their account names and profile pictures, it's often hard to tell who is who. Without a photo of the person, it's really impossible to know. Still, I've been opening the app and scrolling through it from time to time since then.
A few days later, there was a gathering with alumni, so I again asked for their accounts and have been looking at them. Some post diligently, while others hardly post at all. Some post content that disappears in 24 hours.
I wonder what everyone was posting during the pandemic. They should have had the time, but I have almost no memory of seeing their posts. Would my stress have increased or decreased if I had looked? I'll never know now. I probably avoided looking out of some unconscious fear.
I receive about five requests a day from universities around the world for in-person meetings to coincide with the international university partnership conference I'm attending next month. Short- and long-term study abroad for students, now often referred to as "student mobility," is making a comeback. However, destinations are changing due to geopolitical risks. I feel that Japan's popularity as a study abroad destination is growing.
As the Vice-President for International Collaboration, I want many students to come to Keio University. And I want Keio University students to go out and see the world. Just now, a news flash reported that the Nikkei Stock Average has surpassed its all-time high. But can't something be done about the weak yen? This morning, it was 150.45 yen to the dollar. At this rate, students will likely lose their motivation to go abroad. I'm worried that they will become increasingly inward-looking if this continues.
Yukichi Fukuzawa founded Keio University by learning about and actually seeing foreign countries. If I may speak frankly, Keio University is a school infatuated with the West. Today, we want to look not only to the West but also to Asia and the rest of the world. We want to be a university connected to the world.
I rarely post on social media myself, but my photo sometimes appears (without my knowledge) on the Keio University Instagram . If you take a look, I think you'll see that Keio University as a whole is quite active in its global engagement.
SFC also has an Instagram account . When I opened it, I saw it written that the Okashira Diary is "one of our popular features, running since 2004 and soon celebrating its 20th anniversary." What pressure.
To all new students, I look forward to seeing you at SFC.