Academic Year 2016 Graduate School Admission Ceremony—President’s Address

04.04.2016 Update

Welcome and congratulations to our 293 new graduate students! On behalf of the entire faculty and staff, I offer my warmest congratulations to you, your families and all those who have supported you in reaching this important milestone. It is my great pleasure to be with you here on this beautiful day. To all of our guests who have taken time out of their busy schedules to be with us here, I very much appreciate your presence. I hope you will join me as we all watch over the futures of these graduate school students while they pursue their studies and research.

We are welcoming forty-nine international students from ten countries this year: China, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Poland and Afghanistan. We are flying the flags of the countries of our international students in this hall alongside the Japanese national flag.

It is the great pleasure of our faculty and staff to welcome the international students who choose to cross borders every year to pursue a course of study and research here at Ochanomizu University. It is my earnest hope that all of our international students will enjoy studying and conducting research here in Japan, far away from their home countries, and that they will have opportunities to learn about different lifestyles, viewpoints and values through their interactions with Japanese culture and the Japanese people.

And for those of you born and raised in Japan, I hope you enjoy interacting and making friends with international students through various exchange opportunities, and that you experience significant personal growth as you learn to appreciate the diversity that exists among people around the world.

After your four years of undergraduate study—or your six years of undergraduate and early graduate study and research—I imagine you have arrived here full of hope and ready to take the next step in your academic career. I hope you take advantage of the rich learning and research environment of Ochanomizu University to explore and study a variety of fields. Toward that end, the faculty and staff of Ochanomizu University are developing various systems and campus facilities to create a positive research environment.

As you all know, Ochanomizu University celebrated its 140th anniversary last year on November 29.

Ochanomizu University was founded in 1875 as Tokyo Women’s Normal School, Japan’s first institution of higher education for women in the Ochanomizu neighborhood. Over the next 140 years, the university has produced many talented educators and researchers. Since Ochanomizu University became a university under the new school system in 1949, it has established a graduate school master’s degree program in 1963, followed by a doctoral degree program in 1976. These were the first graduate school programs opened by a women’s university in Japan.

Since its founding, this university has been expected to cultivate female leaders equipped with both general knowledge and specialized expertise. Even when it was difficult for women to play a working role in society, this university has consistently cultivated leading educators, scientists and engineers. We have sent many talented graduates out into the world, supported women’s independence and social engagement, and bolstered the intellectual foundations of society. This continues to be part o