Commencement Address for the 2025 Academic Year (Undergraduate Division)
To all of you graduating from Kochi University today, I offer my heartfelt congratulations. On behalf of Kochi University, and together with our distinguished guests here today, I extend my sincere congratulations to each and every one of you who has been awarded a degree here in Kochi.
Through your studies at this university, you have encountered not only knowledge and skills in your specialized fields, but also diverse values, ways of thinking, and people from different backgrounds. You have likely engaged in discussions with friends from different disciplines, learned through hands-on experiences in the local community, and had conversations while grappling with differences in values. There were surely moments when opinions clashed and you felt the difficulty of reaching mutual understanding. However, these “encounters with the unfamiliar” are precisely one of the most valuable experiences you can gain at university. It is about being exposed to different perspectives and striving to understand them rather than dismissing them.It is precisely through this process that new ideas and values are born. The innovation that is so strongly sought after in our country today is by no means something that suddenly springs from special talent. It is something that takes shape little by little through the acceptance of differences and repeated dialogue. You have cultivated precisely this ability through your studies here at Kochi University.
And you have learned one more important thing: the future is not something that is handed to you by others, but something you shape yourselves by thinking, choosing, and taking responsibility. Kochi, where you have studied, is by no means a major city within Japan. Yet this region has long blazed its own trail, unbound by the conventional wisdom or preconceived notions of the central government.Many pioneers, including Sakamoto Ryoma, were able to gain a perspective that allowed them to view the world from a bird’s-eye view and envision transformation precisely because they placed themselves on the “edge” of Japan—its periphery, so to speak. Being on the “periphery” is not a weakness. It can become a source of strength for envisioning the future. Similarly, because Kochi University is located here, it has faced the realities of the region head-on and posed questions to society through education, research, and medical care.It is within these endeavors that you have learned, reflected, and honed your own perspectives.
Now, when we turn our gaze to the world, we are confronted with a harsh reality. The foundations of democracy are shaking, and in various parts of the world, we see leaders cloaked in the illusion of infallibility—believing they themselves can never be wrong—taking steps to justify authoritarian rule. Yet no human being is infallible.Both humans and society are, by their very nature, fallible. That is precisely why a system for acknowledging and continuously correcting errors—in other words, a “self-correcting mechanism”—is indispensable for society to sustain itself and evolve. When this mechanism ceases to function, society quietly but surely heads toward the brink of collapse. This holds true even in digital and AI societies.Throughout history, human society has generated much suffering—including discrimination, division, and war—based on a shared subjective reality of “what everyone believes.” In the modern era, the influence of such beliefs has grown even stronger through misinformation on social media. That is precisely why it is now more important than ever to think critically, listen to differing opinions, and maintain an attitude of continuous correction through dialogue.
I hope that you will use the perspective you have cultivated in Kochi and the ability to engage in dialogue honed through diversity as your tools, fully harnessing your capacity for self-correction to become pioneers who pave the way for society’s sustainability and evolution. There is no single path to this. It doesn’t matter where you are or what role you play.Please engage with the world in your own way. Even from the regions—no, precisely because you are from the regions—you can do work that resonates globally. I urge you to prove this through your own journey. It is none other than each and every one of you here who will shoulder the future of the world.
In closing, I would like to conclude my address as president with the firm belief that boundless possibilities lie ahead for each of you. Congratulations on your graduation.
March 23, 2026
Hiroyuki Uchida, President of Kochi University
[References]
Yuval Noah Harari, *NEXUS: A History of Humanity Through Information*, Kawade Shobo Shinsho (2025)