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Professor Dr. Kotaro Hirasawa
Dean of the Graduate School of Information, Production and Systems (IPS) Graduation Ceremony Speech (March 2007)

Good afternoon, everyone. Congratulations on your graduation from the masters program at the Waseda University Graduate School of Information, Production, and Systems! This is our third graduation ceremony for students graduating in March. There are 101 graduating students in all, out of which 44 are international students.

Comparing the March graduation with the September one, the proportion of students graduating in March is descreasing, but the percentage of international students is increasing. This reflects the fact that IPS is gradually gaining recognition as an international graduate school. We will continue to aim to make IPS a graduate school with a good balance of Japanese and international students and one which is open, not only to Asia, but to the world.

How were your two years here as a graduate student? I hope you have acquired a superior level of specialist knowledge and the ability to tackle unexplored fields that will become very important in your future life in the outside world. I hope you have experienced the joy of creating something new from scratch yourself / during your time here.

I believe that you will have all acquired these sorts of skills through your student life here at the Waseda University Graduate School of Information, Production, and Systems.

Out of this graduating class, there are 5 students who will proceed to the doctoral program and I hope that these students will carry out research that we can be proud to announce to the world.

To have papers published in world-renowned scientific journals is an extremely important thing. Actually, before I became an academic, I worked as a researcher for a private sector electronics manufacturer for about 30 years. During that time I learned firsthand just how important the research and development of unique technologies and products that can be disseminated to the world is to the development of a company. A company must not compete by just copying or making simple modifications to technologies that have been developed by others.

In order for Japan and other Asian countries to compete on an equal footing in this extremely competitive global age, not only must we brush up the technology researched elsewhere and produce cost-competitive, highly functional products, but we will also be required to create new technologies from scratch ourselves, even if it is difficult to do so.

I hope you will all bear this in mind // and work hard to create new technologies.

Next, I would like to make some comments to those of you who are about to embark on your journey into the world beyond the university.

First, the world here at university and the world beyond are fundamentally different. Having said that however, in the case of Japan 20 to 30 years ago, particularly in the case of the research laboratories of the leading corporations, the atmosphere was actually quite similar to the university environment. There was a place for new recruits in the company to systematically learn the basic knowledge of their superiors. In addition, there were many people in the company who could teach new recruits in detail about how to write documents and how to proceed with research in the form of on-the-job training. And more than anything, there was sufficient breathing space to guide and supervise young new recruits, and allow them to think freely about what they wanted to work on in terms of research and development.

However, in today’s corporations, things have changed dramatically. The stance of corporations now is that they are paying you for the skills and ability that you acquired at university and they expect you to push ahead with research and development. So you cannot expect or hope to be spoon-fed with attentive guidance or support from those who have joined the company before you. In that sense, I want you to go all out and fully exercise and demonstrate what you have learned here at university and fulfill your potential.

Next, is a request to the international students. I ask you all to become a bridge between your home country and Japan. I believe that in the two years you have been here, you have learned something about what sort of country Japan is, and what sort of people the Japanese are.

I hope that you have all got a good impression of Japan, but I am a little concerned that in some cases, perhaps things were not necessarily always positive. However, I hope that you can forgive the negative points, and I would ask you to utilize the positive things to help build cordial relations between your home country and Japan.

At the moment, Japan’s political relations with other Asian countries are not very good, particularly with China and Korea. However, in an age where world events reach us instantaneously via the Internet, and development, production, and distribution are inter-connected on a global level, major progress and developments cannot be expected without mutual cooperation.

IPS has concluded a Memorandum of Academic Exchange mainly with prestigious Chinese universities and just recently, the School of Electronic, Information, and Electrical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and IPS signed a Memorandum as well. When we signed the agreement, Dean Professor Dr. Zheng spoke of his desire to deepen ties, not only with the United States, but also with Japan. We here at IPS, also plan to deepen exchange relations more than ever with many universities in other Asian nations in such areas as student exchanges and collaborative research.

Those of you who have spent at least two years living here in Japan, are the closest thing there is to being a bridge between your home country and Japan. You are a great asset. I ask you please, to work hard to promote friendly relations between your country and Japan.

In conclusion, I have high hopes that you will all build wonderful futures. I wish you all the best.

Congratulations on your graduation!