Congratulations on your graduation! (Graduation Ceremony in March, 2026)

There is no necessity to speak in English inside this hall. However, there are parents and family members from all over the world watching this ceremony online. Therefore, let me speak in English.

Congratulations on your graduation!

You have completed your study at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. And now you will move on to the next stage of your life.
What do you think you will be doing 15 years from now around 2040?
I guess it is not that easy to answer this question. It is becoming increasingly common to change jobs several times throughout one’s career. This is not that surprising because the needs of society and business trends are changing rapidly.

Japan and the world have drastically changed in the first quarter of the 21st century.
In the year 2000, 1 million 190 thousand babies were born in Japan. Last year the number of births fell to 700 thousand. A drop of more than 40 percent in 25 years. On the other hand, the number of foreign residents more than doubled from 1 million 680 thousand to 3 million 950 thousand in the same period.
35 years ago in March 1991, the President of the United States of America announced as follows: “Now, we can see a new world coming into view… A world where the United Nations, freed from cold war stalemate, is poised to fulfill the historic vision of its founders. A world in which freedom and respect for human rights find a home among all nations.” This message was addressed soon after the liberation of Kuwait. 42 countries authorized by the United Nations participated in a military operation against Iraq, which invaded and occupied its neighboring country Kuwait.
The wars we are viewing today were unimaginable at that time.
And finally, let me mention the rapid and transformative development of artificial intelligence, AI, nowadays. I remember that I received my first e-mail address in April 1996 when I became a fourth-year student in university. We mainly made use of information technology to communicate with other people back at that time. Today we communicate with IT devices themselves. We even make them undertake part of our labor.
It is highly likely that the world in 2040, 15 years from now, will be far more different from the world at the beginning of the 21st century.

Recently the Government of Japan called attention to the possibility of the emergence of a serious discrepancy between labor demand and education around 2040 by announcing a prediction of the structure of employment of that year. The government estimates that Japan may face a shortage of more than 3 million experts in AI and robotics, whereas over 4 million clerical workers may become redundant. In terms of academic background, the government predicts that a large part of the surplus labor will come from universities and schools of humanities and social sciences. To be more specific, the government says that 610 thousand surplus workers will be BA holders in humanities and social sciences and 150 thousand will be MA and PhD holders in the same fields.

I do not think that you need to take these numbers seriously. Nor do I think that you will be included in the “surplus” labor force.
Judging from the substantial decrease of the working population and the accelerated development of AI, it is likely that a large part of clerical labor will be replaced by AI. But that does not necessarily mean that students in humanities and social sciences will lose job options. I do not think that clerical jobs are natural or logical choices for those who graduate from schools or universities in the fields of humanities and social sciences.
Maki Sakamoto, professor of informatics and Vice President of the University of Electro-Communications is a graduate of our university. I met Professor Sakamoto at a student business plan competition using AI. Many of the participants were engineering students coming from the University of Electro-Communications and Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology. But the winning team was led by a student from TUFS. I know that quite a few students are interested in information technology and some of the students I taught myself are now working as system engineers.
Earlier this month I attended an event organized by our alumni association, Tokyo Gaigo-kai. I met a patent attorney and a person who is currently studying theoretical physics, both graduates of our university. You have the potential to engage in many fields, probably more than you can imagine.

I suggest that we should get rid of the dichotomy between STEM fields and non-STEM fields, or Rikei and Bunkei in Japanese. Is architecture a STEM field or not? The major in architecture can normally be found in schools of engineering in Japanese universities. However, Tokyo University of the Arts, which has no schools or departments related to STEM, also has a major in architecture.
We cannot classify creativity as either STEM or non-STEM. And this creativity is what we need in the age of change and uncertainty. Creativity to respond to new social needs, creativity to overcome new challenges.

New ideas sometimes come from a single person, but in many cases, they arise from the exchange and combination of diverse ideas. And for that reason, I believe that graduates of our university hold an advantage in the age of change. It is not only because you are equipped with linguistic skills to communicate with people across borders. All of you have experience of facing unfamiliarity and accepting differences. How could you have engaged in foreign studies without that? Many of you also have experience of placing yourself in an environment different from your home country. You are all fully prepared to collaborate with others in an environment filled with diversity.
I would like to add that you also have experience of creating something original. That is what the graduation project is all about. You decide your own topic, set your own hypothesis, collect your own materials, and construct your own argument.

Coming back to the question I gave you at the beginning of my speech, most of you are probably not sure what you will be doing 15 years later.
It is not easy to navigate your way through an uncharted expedition. However, you are already well-prepared to pave your way into the unknown. You have trained yourself by studying foreign culture, something that was totally unfamiliar to you at the very beginning. You are not only prepared to carve out your own career. By communicating and collaborating with others with a variety of knowledge and skills, you are also equipped with the ability to navigate a world which seems to have lost direction.
Studying is not only a way to accumulate existing knowledge within your own mind. It is also a way to prepare yourself for the unknown. This is what I learned by talking with many students and graduates of our university in the past year.
Now that I have given you my final message, I am ready to send you off to the next stage of your life. Congratulations! Enjoy the uncharted expedition which starts when you leave the campus.

Nobuo Haruna
President of TUFS