Notes from the President

Congratulatory Message

Congratulations on your admission to Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU)! I would also like to congratulate your family members who have supported you this far.

I hope that all of you who are joining APU today will take advantage of the university’s education and research as well as our multicultural environment to learn and become people who will change the world in the future.
The number of learning tools available to you has increased due to recent breakthroughs in digital technology. For example, Chat GPT, a popular interactive AI tool, can be used by anyone and generates new content almost instantaneously. It is important to actively adopt new technologies like these and use them in accordance with the rules. On the other hand, at the current stage that AI is in, the answers derived are not always correct. What’s more, AI can only provide answers to the questions you ask, so you are limited to learning only what you want to learn. For this reason, I do not think AI will lead to learning beyond the prompts you provide. I think the ultimate learning experience is to learn about things you did not know about before engaging other people in one-on-one dialogue. With this in mind, I would like all of you to begin your university life thinking about the significance of studying at APU.

Today, I would like to cover three important topics that will contribute to your learning at APU.
First, please engage in a meaningful exchange of ideas with as many people as possible. APU has a nearly one-to-one ratio of international students to domestic students, with students hailing from over 100 countries, and almost all first-year students live in AP House. I hope you will go beyond merely intermingling in this environment, and find ways to solve problems by cooperating with people who have different values than you. To do this, you will need to become proficient in both English and Japanese, the two languages of instruction at APU. I know many of you are not native speakers of either Japanese or English, but I ask that you still make an effort to actively communicate with as many other students as you can.

Second, please study hard. I want you all to devote yourselves to learning about things that you have an affinity for or topics that you are interested in. If you study as hard as you can, you will eventually start running into questions, and finding the answers to these questions one-by-one is the real thrill of academic learning. Before you graduate, please do at least one thing which you will be able to look back at and say that you dedicated yourself to wholeheartedly.

Third, remember to learn from People, Books, and Travel.
Know that you can receive more than just knowledge and skills from People, things such as thought processes and how to ask the right questions can be learned from experts in your field. Alternatively, reading Books gives you access to deep learning that transcends distance and time. If you hear about a foreign university that is making strides in research, why not Travel to that country? Learning from people, books, and travel not only provides you with knowledge, but it also allows you to hone your ability to think. Your time at university is the freest time in your life. Be passionate and delve deeply into whatever it is you want to do.
In closing, a list of 30 books I would like you all to read is attached to this speech. Please study hard with your peers and encourage each other to excel.
Once again, congratulations and welcome to APU!

Haruaki Deguchi
President
Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University
September 22, 2023