To all students enrolled at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology in 2011

To all students enrolled at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology in 2011

Welcome to all of you who have been accepted to Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology. It is unfortunate that the entrance ceremony was canceled due to the Great East Japan Earthquake. We would like to express our deepest condolences to those who lost their lives in the earthquake. We would also like to express our heartfelt sympathy to those who were affected by the disaster.

This year, the undergraduate school welcomes 332 new students to the Faculty Faculty of Agriculture and 658 new students to the Faculty of Faculty of Engineering, for a total of 990 students. The graduate school welcomes new students to the Graduate School of Graduate School of Engineering, Graduate School Graduate School of Agriculture, Graduate Graduate School of Bio-Applications and Systems Engineering Science, and the United Graduate School of Agricultural Science Graduate School of Agricultural Science. Including Cooperative Major in Advanced Health Science which is in its second year of operation and is established Graduate School of Bio-Applications and Systems Engineering, in collaboration with Waseda University, the number of new students is 658 for the Master's (Master's and Specialist Degree) program and 125 for the Doctoral (Doctoral) program. The total number of new students, including undergraduate and graduate students, is 1,773, including 83 international students from Asia, Africa, America, and Europe. It is our greatest joy as faculty and staff to see these 1,773 students grow and succeed as the young and vibrant force of Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology. You may be full of dreams for the future and anxiety and anticipation about encountering unknown things and people in your new life, or you may already have a clear goal and be burning with enthusiasm to live your university life at our university in order to realize it. It is no exaggeration to say that the mental preparation you have for your studies and university life at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology will determine your future. Please be prepared.

For all of you who have entered the undergraduate program, I would like you to first be aware that university education is very different from education up to high school. Up until high school, education was often one-way, where students were expected to absorb and understand the knowledge taught by Faculty Member- the knowledge of their predecessors. However, at university, students are expected to take the initiative, think independently, accumulate knowledge, apply it, and even create new knowledge. A university is a place of learning. The word "learning" contains the character "ask." As Einstein once said:
"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not stop questioning."
When you come up with something, it is important to ask yourself, "Why does this problem occur?" and continue to think, "How can I solve it?" Such questions and ideas will not arise unless you have a sense of discomfort or awareness of the problem. And to correctly recognize and understand them, you need basic knowledge. I would like all of you who have entered the undergraduate program to first acquire a wide range of general and specialized knowledge through classes and experiments. And of course, these four years are also the time to acquire the human skills necessary to take flight as a member of society. There may be things in Campus Life that you think are "meaningless." Even if you try hard, you may fail. However, even if it is meaningless to you young people now, it may be an experience that you will need in a few years or decades. Rather, you yourself can give it meaning. One day, everything will become a line and be connected with meaning. Please do not shy away from anything, and spend Campus Life independently and proactively.

For all of you who are entering graduate school, you should already understand this attitude towards "academics". The next important thing is how to grow as a more specialized researcher. Currently, the Earth is facing various problems. These are issues that affect the survival of life on Earth, such as environmental, energy, and food problems. As I mentioned earlier, I believe that we scientists have a great role to play in the recovery from the recent Great East Japan Earthquake, and in preventing or minimizing future disasters that may occur anywhere on Earth. I would like you to have an international perspective and aim to "create completely new values" or "make dreams" in order to become human resources who "contribute to the development of science and technology in harmony with world peace and society and the natural environment," which is the basic philosophy of our university. To do this, we must turn the knowledge we have cultivated so far into deeper and broader specialized knowledge. The word "specialization" may sound like a local focus, but in today's world, where various phenomena are intricately intertwined, we need a wide range of knowledge so that we can think about things from various angles. And in order to make that specialized knowledge useful to society, communication skills are essential. If you cannot express your own individuality and opinions, cooperate and collaborate with others who have different values, and get things done smoothly, you will not be able to expand your research both domestically and internationally and contribute to society. If you cannot connect people and society with research through communication, research will lose its true meaning. Our university has academic exchange agreements with 88 universities around the world, and has established overseas bases to promote collaboration with leading universities and companies overseas, accepting excellent international students and researchers from overseas and sending them abroad, and is actively working toward International Exchange and creating a system to nurture researchers who will be active globally. In addition, our university is a university with a long history and tradition, which will soon be celebrating its 140th anniversary, and has been evaluated as having a particularly practical track record in agriculture and engineering, which are the backbone of industry, and in the fields of their fusion. Since we have focused on the importance of industry-academia collaboration from an early stage and put a lot of effort into it, we have always maintained our position in the top five in Japan in terms of the number and amount of joint research per Faculty Member member. This is also an indication that companies highly value our research and are trying to use its results for commercialization. In addition, there is a competitive fund that all university Faculty Member compete to obtain, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research. Receiving this funding indicates that the Faculty Member 's research ability has been highly evaluated, and in terms of the amount of funding received per Faculty Member member, our university has always been around 10th among Japanese universities. We are proactive in International Exchange, have deep ties with society, and are recognized for our high research ability. I hope that you will make effective use of these characteristics to become high-quality researchers and engineers who will play a central role in solving global problems and make a significant contribution to building a recycling-oriented society and a society that can develop sustainably.

Finally, there is one more thing that may seem obvious, but is very important. Research can sometimes be mentally and physically demanding. Without a healthy mind and body, it is impossible to continue on the path of academics. In particular, those who come from other regions or overseas may have various concerns in an unfamiliar place. Please take good care of your health and lead a fruitful university life. Of course, we are not yet satisfied with the current situation. We will continue to make our utmost efforts to further develop and support you even more strongly. I hope that all of you gathered here today will not forget the feelings of today and will grow greatly as members of society who will lead the future. I would also like to once again convey my welcome to you becoming a member of our university, and conclude my message to those who will be entering the university.

April 7, 2011