Entrance ceremony 2022: The President’s welcome address

Today, we are honored and privileged to welcome 2,545 new students to our university. Congratulations to all incoming students on your admission to Hokkaido University.

On behalf of all faculty, staff, and current students of Hokkaido University, I would like to express my warmest congratulations on your acceptance. I would also like to extend my congratulations and sincere appreciation to your families and all others who have supported you to this day. The President’s message at the entrance ceremony is a message to all of you as you begin your next few years at Hokkaido University. At the same time, I, as someone who is starting a new year with all of you, would like to make this my own statement of determination as well as a message to all members of Hokkaido University. 

The English translation of this speech will be posted on our English website later today, and I would encourage all of you, not only our international students but also our Japanese home students, to read through it as English learning material.

Now I would like to talk about the history of Hokkaido University and our amazing campus. First, I would like to tell you about our history.  In 1876, 146 years ago from now, Sapporo Agricultural College was founded by the government of the Meiji Era to foster young leaders for the exploration and development of the frontier island, Hokkaido. It also aimed to rival higher education institutions in the West. This Sapporo Agricultural College was the precursor to Hokkaido University. 

It should be noted that Sapporo Agricultural College had opted to provide American-style liberal arts education first. “Liberal arts,” in simple terms, means “a wide range of general knowledge.” It is astoundingly progressive, even by today’s standards, that Sapporo Agricultural College placed liberal arts at the core of its higher education curriculum and offered not only agricultural studies, but also various foundational courses in English, which ranged from mathematics, chemistry, biology to languages, history, and economics.

Since then, Hokkaido University has maintained the following four basic principles of education and research developed through its liberal arts tradition: “Frontier Spirit,” with which you explore uncharted academic territories; “Global Perspectives,” which allow you to gain knowledge and awareness as globally-minded individuals and cultivate respect for diversity; “All-Round Education,” which gives you the foundation of your personal development; and “Practical Learning,” which gives you the opportunity to contribute the knowledge and outcomes you have gained back to society.

Next, I would like to talk about our campus. The University is centrally located in the City of Sapporo, and our Sapporo Campus is one of the largest university campuses in Japan. The University also has the Hakodate Campus, vast experimental forests, marine and lake stations, an orchard, a botanical garden, and stock farms. We conduct globally competitive education and research in an environment blessed with nature.

I have walked through many university campuses including those abroad and am proud to say that we have the most beautiful campus in the world blessed with four beautiful seasons.

Hokkaido University is truly unrivaled in terms of its unique history and amazing locations. We use the phrase, “an unparalleled university,” to describe these wonderful characteristics of our university in just a couple of words.

Our society and the world around us are currently experiencing three of the greatest crises of this century.

The first is that the global COVID-19 pandemic, which nobody could have possibly anticipated, has continued over two years, and we are still not seeing a way out. The second is the warfare in Ukraine, which threatens global peace and security and could lead to the collapse of the world order. The third is the threat to life on the planet, caused by global warming and other climatic changes which have resulted from humankind’s massive production activities since the Industrial Revolution.

What all three have in common is that they are crises caused by human beings. However, I believe there are things Hokkaido University can do to help overcome these crises. First, Hokkaido University is a hub for health sciences research where we collectively leverage our strengths as a university to fight against new infectious diseases including COVID-19. Second, the University has sought world peace as well as the prosperity of the world built on peace in all areas of education and research. Notably, Hokkaido University is the comprehensive research university that is geographically closest to Russia, and has pursued stability and peaceful order of the world through its research in the Slavic-Eurasian and other studies. Third, the University has a history of making efforts to transform our campus, which has always been rich in nature, into a sustainable one, and has developed research in integrated science related to energy and the global environment.

After this entrance ceremony, you will all hear a performance of “都ぞ弥生: Miyako zo Yayoi (The Town in Spring). “都ぞ弥生: Miyako zo Yayoi” was written and composed by our predecessors in the Meiji era, and is one of the most famous college dormitory songs in Japan. All the lyrics strike a chord, but there is one special phrase that I and the members of the University on stage today have never stopped loving. It is the phrase that comes at the very end of the song, “人の世の清き国ぞと憧れぬ: In an earthly life, a pure paradise we yearn for.” Here I see the lofty aspirations of our predecessors which we can look up to and admire. As we confront these three crises of today, we aspire to reconnect with the high humanitarian spirit of Hokkaido University, as sung in the song “都ぞ弥生: Miyako zo Yayoi”, “人の世の清き国ぞと憧れぬ: In an earthly life, a pure paradise we yearn for.”  In these times of unprecedented crisis, the University must never extinguish the light of humanitarian ideals.

All National University Corporations including Hokkaido University are mandated to set goals every six years and present them to the general public. This April, we will enter a new six-year term. As part of our unique goals, the University has pledged to contribute to the resolution of global issues and the achievement of the SDGs. The SDGs and carbon neutrality are goals of many countries and organizations around the world. It should be noted, however, that our university has long been targeting many of  the SDGs over the course of 150-year history, since the University’s founding, such as environmental preservation which includes our campus and experimental forests, food resources, marine research, health sciences research, in addition to diversity and inclusion. Many SDGs are a rephrasing of the founding principles of the University and the very genes, the DNA, of Hokkaido University throughout its 150 years of existence.

Looking at the global situation today, in April 2022, you may think that the start of your university life is not a smooth one. However, when you graduate in a few years, I hope that the world will have overcome the current crisis and stand at the threshold of a new era of peace and prosperity. I am confident that you will all be proud to have studied at Hokkaido University. 

Lastly, I would like to leave you with the famous words of Dr. William S. Clark, the first Vice President of Sapporo Agricultural College, “Be ambitious.” This phrase is quite well known. It is short and easy to remember, yet powerful and deeply profound. I can think of no other university in Japan that is blessed with such an inspiring message.

“Be ambitious!” These words will speak to your soul and keep encouraging you throughout your journey at the University and, I hope, even for the rest of your life. 

Dear new students: Through the four founding principles I have talked about today as well as respect for diversity, achievement of SDGs, and creation of a society in a post-pandemic world, I hope you challenge yourself to gain the strength that serves as the foundation for achieving world peace and prosperity, which is the common aspiration of humanity, the lofty ambition of realizing “人の世の清き国: an earthly life, a pure paradise.”

I wish you all the best in this new chapter of your life.

Once again, congratulations, and welcome to Hokkaido University. 

April 6, 2022

Kiyohiro Houkin

President

Hokkaido University

The original address was delivered in Japanese. Click the link below to read the transcription of the original Japanese address:
https://www.hokudai.ac.jp/president/greeting/09.html