Notes from the President

Happy New Year.

In April 2025, APU will celebrate its 25th anniversary. Since our founding in 2000, we have received tremendous support from Oita Prefecture and Beppu City, as well as substantial contributions from industry leaders for international student scholarships. On behalf of the university’s faculty and staff, I extend my heartfelt gratitude to the local community, industry partners, high schools that have sent their students to APU, the families of our students, and most importantly, our graduates who embraced the new environment at APU, grew, and are now making their mark globally.

Since its inception, APU has welcomed students from 166 countries and regions, creating an unparalleled multicultural environment. Conflicts are inevitable in such a diverse society, but these frictions also spark new ideas. Our APU2030 Vision outlines our future goals and envisions a university where “APU graduates possess the power to change the world.” We aim to cultivate individuals who collaborate across cultures, create new values, and lead transformative changes for a better society. As 2030 approaches, we are proud that many alumni are already fulfilling these roles.

Starting at the end of 2024, we embarked on the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s Multicultural Campus Project Toward Social Impact in collaboration with Kyushu Institute of Technology. Under the theme “Leap Beyond Global,” APU will drive transformation by developing programs for lifelong learners and establishing itself as a hub of knowledge that contributes to the sustainable development of local and global communities, revolutionizing the role of the university as more than just an educational institution. We will work together to promote educational and research reforms, generating creative synergy between the Kyushu Institute of Technology and APU.

This year, we will host various events to celebrate our 25th anniversary and express our gratitude to all stakeholders. We invite over 20,000 active graduates worldwide, current students and their families, local residents, and all our supporters to join us in these celebrations. Together, we will continue to boldly build a university with its eyes fixed on this 21st century world, and we hope you will join with us. Let us all—faculty, students, and everyone at APU—make this a university we can be even more proud of.

Yoneyama Hiroshi
President, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University