First, let me express my heartfelt congratulations on your graduation from the prestigious Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University.

I also want to congratulate your families, who showered you with love and watched you grow, and express my gratitude to President Deguchi and all of APU's faculty and staff who provided you with steadfast guidance.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of APU. Since its inception, the university has striven to provide high-quality education and research, and as a result, it has chalked up a stellar track record as a leader in the globalization of higher education in Japan. The university's efforts have gained praise far and wide. The School of Business has obtained accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the Tourism and Hospitality program has earned TedQual (Tourism Education Quality) certification from the UNWTO, and the university offers numerous educational programs with partners around the world. APU is also open to the community. By assisting with the teaching of intercultural understanding and English at elementary and junior high schools throughout the prefecture and participating in local events, APU has been a strong partner in the internationalization and revitalization of Oita Prefecture.

On APU's multicultural campus, where students from approximately 90 countries and regions live and learn together, you worked hard to become people who can contribute to creating the future of the Asia Pacific region. Now that you have graduated, I sincerely hope that you will utilize the global mindset and networks you have developed at APU to contribute greatly to the development of the Asia Pacific region in the various fields you have each chosen to enter.

Finally, I hope that you will always feel affection for Oita as your “home away from home” and a place full of fond memories. I also hope you will serve to bridge the gap between different countries, regions, people as well as between Oita and the wider world, and I wish you all the best in your future endeavors while praying for the continued advancement of Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University.

On behalf of the citizens of Beppu, please allow me to express my warmest congratulations to the graduating class of Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University and also to your families.

Today, as you graduate, I am certain you are recalling the many things you experienced during your time at APU. Typically, you would be remembering all the good times you had in your final year, but I expect many of you in this fall graduating classes have mixed feelings given the dire situation we are in.

Some students scheduled to graduate today were unable to return to Japan for the ceremony, while others don’t know when they will be able to go home. Meanwhile, other students have been ordered by their companies to wait at home, or worse, have had their job offers suspended. Even still, some students have given up plans for further education due to the loss of part-time wages or reduced financial support from their families. In any case, it pains me to think that in just six short months, your worlds were turned upside down amid this unexpected crisis.

The city of Beppu is also facing a major crisis with an unprecedented decline in tourist numbers. Amid this backdrop, efforts to support the students, including the donation drive undertaken by a group of alumni called APU Hands, have brought into focus once again just how deep the ties are between the citizens of Beppu and the students of APU. Beppu City also launched the Gakusei Yell Project to provide food aid to students and offer payments to students who volunteered to cooperate with the city's initiatives, thus bringing about a new era of cooperation among students, universities based in Beppu, and the city government. Despite this difficult situation, we have encouraged empathy and mutual aid, and I hope you will remember this for years to come.

Once the situation has improved and people are free to travel again, I hope you will all come back to your “home away from home” of Beppu someday. I pray that the day will come soon when you can be warmly reunited with your friends and teachers.

In closing, as you start your new lives today, I sincerely wish you all great success and look forward to seeing you again in Beppu someday.

We would like to extend our sincerest congratulations to all students who today graduate or receive their degrees from Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU). On behalf of the Ritsumeikan Trust, I commend each and every one of you.

Firstly I would like to salute you for your efforts in the face of the novel coronavirus pandemic that has spread across the world since the start of this year. The pandemic has greatly disrupted our communal way of life as humans, and face-to-face communication in particular. This has made it difficult for students to receive in-person instruction from their teachers and to pursue their learning through discussion and interaction with their fellow students. Extracurricular and job-hunting activities have also been subject to major restrictions. But perhaps this has presented an important opportunity for wrapping up what you have learned at university, and thinking about the next step in your lives. The Ritsumeikan Academy and APU have formulated response measures and offered assistance to the greatest extent possible. But I believe that your success in overcoming a variety of obstacles and making it to this point is primarily a product of your own ingenuity and effort. Especially for international students who have left their home countries to study here, there would surely have been times of apprehension when considering the health of family members far away, in addition to the usual uncertainties of dealing with differences in culture and language. I myself once fell ill while studying abroad in the United States, and the desolation I felt then offer a parallel with what you have been going through.

The primary and key control measures of infectious diseases are to avoid close contact with others and stay in one place. It is natural that these two factors would have such a great impact on our contemporary society, which is founded on human movement on a global scale and extensive communication with people all over the world. The major decline in mobility of people and goods has been a setback to global cooperation and solidarity not only in economic terms but across all spheres of life. This situation has led to heightened interest in the idea of transformation toward a resilient and sustainable society.
In 2015 the United Nations formulated the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a set of common challenges for the global community in areas including climate change, energy, hunger, and diversity. Increased interest in these SDGs is one manifestation of the current pandemic urging to recalibrate the relationship between humans and the natural environment. The SDGs give shape to the Ritsumeikan Charter’s commitment to “promote peace, democracy and sustainable development in Japan and throughout the world.” In April last year Ritsumeikan established an SDGs Promotion Headquarters, and is actively supporting the efforts of faculty, staff and students to tackle social problems. APU too is working proactively on the SDGs, and the APU2030 Vision commits to fostering “global citizens who will build a peaceful world by understanding and accepting cultural and historical differences.” I hope that in line with this spirit, you too will work from your respective standpoints to tackle the SDGs.

An important part of the SDGs is applying global shared awareness to resolve local issues. APU has long cherished locality at the same time as taking the lead in the globalization of Japan’s universities. Think with global standards, act from local standpoints; deploy local initiatives on a global scale. In the context of the current pandemic, this means formulating questions from a variety of perspectives, rather than reducing the problem to a binary choice between preventing the spread of the virus and prioritizing personal freedoms; it means using distinctive local attributes to enrich the world, rather than pursuing globalization leading to a homogenous, uniform world. The kind of globalization that APU envisages is one rich in diversity. This now entails a new challenge: the re-discovery of local value.
I believe that in the future, we will see the development of a new and radically different hybrid lifestyle model that integrates the digital and real-life realms. Predicting exactly what form this will take is not an easy task, but there is a vital need for individuals who can adapt to changing conditions, and furthermore discover and create new value through cycles of careful consideration and trial-and-error, thereby contributing to society both globally and locally. I am sure that you have taken on many challenges during your life as a university student. In order to enable these experiences to blossom even further in wider society, it is important that you keep on learning. This is said to be the era of the “100-year lifespan.” As part of your career plans, I encourage you to consider delving more deeply into novel topics at graduate school. It will empower you to take on new challenges.

Precisely because we live in uncertain, insecure times, I encourage you to have the courage to tackle new challenges without fear of failure. Be somebody who changes the world. Uncertainty is also opportunity. Keep challenging yourself. I am confident that this free spirit of challenge will open up pathways to success in life.

Let me conclude by once again congratulating all of you who are graduating and completing your degrees today.

Congratulations to everyone in the Class of Fall 2020 on your graduation. In a typical year, I would be on stage in my academic robes presenting your diplomas to you in person, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are only able to hold a simplified ceremony this year. Although I cannot speak to you directly, as the Dean of APM and GSM, I would like to send this message to congratulate you all on your graduation today.

All of you came to APU with big dreams and some worries as well. I am certain you enjoyed the beautiful view from Jumonjibaru on clear days, but you also withstood the wind, rain, and snow. In this natural setting, as you learned with students from all over the world, I am sure you experienced many joys and difficulties. Those experiences will become a part of the foundation for your lives.

The College of International Management and the Graduate School of Management are accredited by AACSB, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. This year our MBA Program also earned accreditation from AMBA, the Association of MBAs. Thanks to the efforts of our students, faculty, and staff, we are making steady progress toward securing APU's place among renowned business schools around the world, and our reputation as a unique university is gaining more recognition around the world. I hope you will take pride in these achievements. The mission of the College of International Management and the Graduate School of Management is to develop educated individuals equipped with a global perspective and the ability to adapt to multicultural settings; as such, I fully expect you to succeed wherever you go, be it in Japan, Asia, or somewhere else in the world.

Although everyone has their own definition of happiness, I sincerely hope that you all lead lives that meet your respective definitions of happiness. Once again, congratulations on your graduation.

Congratulations everyone on your graduation, and congratulations to your families as well!

Due to the pandemic, this year’s ceremony is unusually quiet since we are unable to gather at B-Con Plaza with your family and friends, celebrate together, and share emotional goodbyes. Naturally, you may feel down, but I hope you will realize that you are a special group of graduates. Let's take this opportunity to do something we cannot normally do.

First, I would like to ask you to look back over your photos, journals, and class notes from the last four years. It was of your own will that you chose to leave your hometowns and loving families to come to this campus on the top of a mountain. I am certain you have many fond memories of AP House, the amazing Multicultural Weeks, and the events that you joined with the local citizens, but you may have also experienced isolation, homesickness, pressure from your classes and homework, and worries about your future career paths. Be sure to save a space deep in your heart for all these memories.

Next, let's take this opportunity to think about the skills you were able to develop, and those you were not, here at APU. I expect you all learned to understand other cultures, honed your communication skills, and gained expertise in a specific field. Try to analyze where you grew the most as well as the reasons you were not able to meet some of your goals. Now give yourself a big round of applause! Based on the experiences you have had and the lessons you have learned, the next step is to paint a picture of your life after graduation.

Finally, be sure to remember all of people who supported you along the way and thank them in your heart.

We, the faculty and staff of APU, take pride in having been able to cultivate students like you! I am sure that you will all overcome whatever difficulties you may encounter and lead wonderful lives after graduation.

Once again, you are a special group of graduates. Please think about what this means as you head out into the world and work hard so that someday, when we meet again, we can talk about this with pride. I wish you all success as alumni of APU!