NEWS

On Friday, March 13, 2026, APU held its graduation ceremony for fall semester graduates. A total of 807 students successfully completed their degrees, including 252 international students from 41 countries and regions and 555 domestic students. This year, APU also celebrated the graduation of the first student from the College of Sustainability and Tourism.

The ceremony took place at Millennium Hall, where graduates, their families, and faculty and staff all gathered to celebrate this important milestone.
During the ceremony, President Hiroshi Yoneyama delivered the following message to the graduating class:

“Generative artificial intelligence has, in the span of your undergraduate or graduate studies, begun to reshape medicine, law, education, creative work, and the very nature of professional expertise. You are the first graduating class in history to have spent your entire university career alongside this technology. The graduates who will thrive are not those who fear this technology, nor those who surrender their judgment to it. They are those who bring to it what no algorithm can replicate: genuine curiosity, ethical commitment, and the ability to ask the right, informed questions. These are the qualities we have tried to cultivate here. I hope you leave today confident that you possess them.
APU was founded on the core principle of Freedom, Peace, and Humanity. In a world where freedom is under pressure, where peace cannot be assumed, and where the humanity of distant others is too easily denied, these are not mere decorations. They are a program of action.
“I am asking you to be idealists in the demanding sense—people who hold fast to values under pressure, who reject the cynicism that masquerades as sophistication, who believe that building a better world is serious, adult, professional work. You have spent two to four years preparing for this moment. The world, for all its turbulence, is genuinely in need of what you have become.”

――― You can read his full messagehere ―――

Congratulatory messages were also delivered by special guests Mr. Kenji Ono, the Vice Governor of Oita Prefecture, and Mr. Junichi Matsugu (College of Asia Pacific Studies, Class of 2005, Japan), a representative of the APU Alumni Association.

At the ceremonies held for the College of Asia Pacific Studies, the College of Sustainability and Tourism, and the Graduate School of Asia Pacific Studies, Rin Takamura (Japan), recipient of this year’s Momofuku Ando Honorary Doctor Award, addressed the audience on behalf of undergraduate students:
“We have spent our days confronting values and ideas different from our own. Even when we felt frustrated by cultural differences and misunderstanding, we never gave up on engaging in dialogue. Through these experiences, we have developed the ability to pursue ongoing dialogue and move forward together with others. This ability makes us unique and represents our strength as APU students. Based on this, I would like to share one mindset. That is to aim for ‘transcendent solutions.’ In the unpredictable world that awaits us, turning away from conflict or choosing superficial compromise cannot truly solve the problems we face. To solve them, we must conceive new ideas that exceed the expectations of both sides. These are called ‘transcendent solutions.’ To create such solutions, I believe creativity is essential. Creativity grows when we are exposed to diverse knowledge and perspectives. That is why continuing to learn matters.
At APU, we have certainly built a strong foundation for this. I myself will stay hungry for learning to cultivate my creativity and strive to become a person who can propose many transcendent solutions in the world.”

Representing the Graduate School of Asia Pacific Studies, Than Nguyen Viet Hoang (Vietnam) reflected:
“Looking back, 18 months may be nothing compared to one’s lifetime, but in the same period at APU, I have grown, learned, and played more than I could possibly imagine. In Vietnam’s culture, we have the saying: ‘Lửa thử vàng, gian nan thử sức,’ which means ‘Fire tests gold, adversity tests strength’. Only through challenges does one grow, and thanks to all the ‘tests’ I faced as a student of APU, I can now confidently apply the knowledge and abilities I learned to contribute to the peace and prosperity of not only my nation but also the Asia Pacific. I promise that I will bring with me the values and knowledge of an APU graduate student to contribute to Vietnam, to Japan, and to the prosperity of the entire Asia Pacific.”

At the ceremony for the College of International Management and the Graduate School of Management, undergraduate representative Chen Ruitheng (China) shared the following words:
“Over the past four years, we have grown stronger through change. We learned resilience, collaboration, and global awareness. Today, the world remains complex and unpredictable, but we are no longer the students who arrived in 2022. We are individuals shaped by diversity and strengthened by challenge.
To my fellow graduates, may we move forward with hope, responsibility, and courage, ready not just to face uncertainty, but to lead within it. As for myself, I will continue my academic journey as a graduate student, together with a close Japanese friend from APU, carrying forward the encouragement and support I have received thus far.”

Representing the Graduate School of Management, Asser Ossama Aboulmakarem Abdelaziz (Egypt) stated:
“I was immersed in an environment with people of various countries, cultures, and thinking patterns, and this experience took me well out of my comfort zone. With time, I realized that growth usually starts where your comfort level ends. My experience in this university did not just teach me academic theory. It has taught me a sense of responsibility, cultural awareness, and collaboration in a global setting. I was taught that being a leader does not mean having power, but being empathetic, responsible and able to listen. These lessons will remain with me well after graduation.”

The ceremony concluded with APU’s traditional cap toss. As the graduates shouted, “We are APU!” together, hundreds of red caps soared into the air. Smiling and filled with anticipation, the graduates set off toward the next chapter of their lives.

You can watch the ceremony on APU’s official YouTube channel:
https://youtu.be/vLpmmRYmRNY