[Feature: 30 Years Since the Founding of SFC] Roundtable Discussion: Toward an SFC that Leads Global Society

Thank you all for taking the time to be here today. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the founding of SFC, and today we have gathered individuals who studied at SFC as students from the first to the fourth graduating classes.

When SFC was founded, internationalization and globalization were just beginning to be talked about. Everyone here, with the exception of Mr. Hayashi, is not a returnee student. However, since you have all gone abroad and been active in your respective fields after graduation, I would like to ask what you have been doing in the sense of SFC being active in the world.

We cannot go now due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but when I go abroad, many people approach me saying, "I'm an SFC graduate." I hope today's roundtable discussion will be an opportunity to discover new and interesting aspects of SFC from the perspective of a global society.

First, I would like to ask each of you how you spent your student days. Mr. Yoshiura, what was it like for you?

I am a member of the first graduating class, entering in 1990. On a campus with no upperclassmen, I participated in club activities that I helped start with friends who invited me, and since I was interested in the field of politics, I often took related lectures. I had a vague expectation that coming to SFC would allow me to see the countries of the world beyond Japan.

I am originally from Amakusa in Kumamoto, and I grew up in a place rich in nature, surrounded by the sea and mountains. During high school, I stayed in a dormitory at a boys' high school in Kumamoto City. I first learned about the existence of SFC in an entrance exam magazine during my second year, and I felt a sense of progressiveness and the future there, which made me really want to go. Once I enrolled, every day was truly stimulating. The various insights, new information, and perspectives presented by the professors were interesting, and I enjoyed being on campus.

From my third year, I joined Professor Atsushi Kusano's research seminar. At the time, Professor Kusano appeared frequently on television, so my relatives in the countryside were very happy. In the spring semester of my third year, I studied Japan's ODA intensively, and during the summer vacation, I went on a research seminar trip to inspect Japan's ODA projects in Thailand and Bangladesh.

After that, I mainly studied the U.S. Congress and Japan-U.S. relations, staying in the Kusano seminar through my master's course before joining Kyodo News.

Was it your choice to go to Washington with Kyodo News?

Yes. I wanted to use what I studied at university in my work, so a posting to the U.S. had been my hope since I joined the company. Since opportunities come around if you produce results in the political news department, I aimed for that in my reporting activities.

Fortunately, in the political news department, I started by covering Prime Minister Koizumi during the postal privatization election, and after that, I was in charge of foreign policy and national security, which I am interested in, for a long time. Then, from the summer of 2013, I was given the opportunity to go to Washington. I was in charge of the Department of Defense and the White House during the second term of the Obama administration.

So it went exactly as planned. Mr. Kato, you are a baseball player who once played in the Chicago Cubs' minor league system, but what were your student days like?

Originally, I developed an admiration after watching the Waseda-Keio rivalry on TV, and I simply really wanted to join the Keio baseball team.

In the case of my high school, everyone goes to university through general entrance exams, but when you're playing high school baseball, there's really no time to study, so I thought I'd have to spend a year as a ronin (student studying for exams after graduation). The Keio baseball team has a study session for high school students in the summer. At other universities, they have what's called a 'selection,' and if your skills are recognized there, you can enter the university directly. But at Keio, you can't get in that way, so they gave us detailed guidance on studying for the entrance exams.

That was the first time I heard the term 'AO entrance exam.' I didn't know about it until then, but I heard there was a place called SFC where you could do computer stuff. I had always liked computers. It was a time when the word 'Internet' was not yet familiar, but I thought I might be able to do something interesting if I went there, so I took the AO entrance exam for SFC.

However, for the AO entrance exam, even now, famous players who were active at Koshien or who would later be active as professionals come to apply. I thought I wouldn't pass, but I managed to get accepted. Looking back now, I think they evaluated not just my baseball or sports performance, but what I really wanted to do at SFC and what I had done up to that point.

After enrolling, you were the captain of the baseball team, right?

Yes, I was in a year sandwiched between two star players: Taisei Takagi (SFC graduate, formerly of Seibu) above me, and Yoshinobu Takahashi (formerly of the Giants) below me. I always felt it was an amazing thing to be able to play baseball with these people.

When I graduated, there was a path to continue playing baseball, but I felt I had unfinished business at SFC and decided to study programming, so I went on to graduate school. It was right around the time Ichiro lost to Nomura's 'ID Baseball' in the Japan Series, so I thought that if data analysis progressed, sports might change.

However, the president of the data analysis company I was doing joint research with told me, "It's a waste, go play baseball in America one more time." That flipped a switch inside me, and I headed to the U.S. I based myself at a sports academy in Florida, where tennis player Kei Nishikori also was, and kept taking minor league tryouts.

At first, I couldn't get a contract, but by chance, Leon Lee, who used to be active in Japanese professional baseball, came to the academy to scout for the Chicago Cubs. He said to me, "Are you Japanese? If it's the Cubs, I'll sign you right now." I was really lucky, but that's how I ended up playing in the Cubs' minor leagues for two years.

Next, Ms. Hirose, what were your student days like?

In short, those four years at SFC were so much fun I couldn't help myself. To begin with, the reason I chose SFC was that during my high school years, Perestroika was being promoted in the Soviet Union, and at the same time, the Eastern European revolutions were spreading like dominoes. I was greatly intrigued by those movements. I wondered why such changes were spreading all at once.

I felt that international politics alone wouldn't be enough to explain it. When I was wondering what to do, there was this brand-new campus called SFC, and I thought I might be able to study various things comprehensively there. At the time, Professor Kenichi Tominaga, who was famous for his theories on social change and modernization, was there. I thought that if I studied comprehensively under him, my questions might be resolved. Just then, I learned about the AO entrance exam and was fortunate enough to be admitted.

I was also in the second graduating class, and since many parts of the school buildings were still under construction, I took pride in the fact that we were building the campus together. The classes were fun, being at the university was stimulating every day, and I was fully immersed in SFC life, even doing a part-time job as an SFC guide, showing guests around the campus.

I took a truly diverse range of classes. In addition to Professor Kenichi Tominaga's research seminar, I also audited and participated in the seminars of Professor Michio Umegaki, Professor Takashi Fujii, and Professor Yoichi Ito, narrowing down what I wanted to do by studying various fields.

Actually, about two weeks after entering the university, I was able to go to a lecture by Gorbachev. The day after I enrolled, I saw a public call on the SFC bulletin board, submitted an essay, and was allowed to participate as a representative of Keio. I met him and even shook his hand; I felt an incredible aura.

However, six months later, the August Coup occurred, and by the end of the year, the Soviet Union had collapsed. My interest in the Soviet region faded, and in the latter half of my undergraduate years, I became more interested in international politics in general and changes in Asia. Conversely, I believe that having gone through that process and learning various things helped create the foundation for looking at the world broadly.

Mr. Hayashi, you went from Chutobu Junior High School through Keio Senior High School and then to the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, right?

Yes. My family had been in the Keio School of Medicine since my great-grandfather's generation. So, I have relatives who are Keio alumni all around me. My father also graduated from the medical school of a university in Taiwan, but he was allowed into Keio Hospital as a clinical research physician.

I grew up in Taiwan until the fourth grade of elementary school. At that time, many Taiwanese people were sending their children abroad due to the impact of the Nixon Shock and Taiwan's (Republic of China) withdrawal from the United Nations. Also, my parents wanted me to enter the Keio School of Medicine, so I was sent to Japan in the fourth grade to take the junior high school entrance exams. Nintendo's Famicom (NES) had just come out in Japan, and while I was personally just captivated by the Famicom, I fortunately managed to enter Chutobu Junior High School.

Even at Keio Senior High School, I was pressured to concentrate on getting into the School of Medicine and wasn't even allowed to join a club. I admired the regatta and really wanted to join the rowing club, but eventually, it became clear that my grades weren't good enough to go to the School of Medicine.

At that time, since I lived in Fujisawa, I went to an SFC campus information session on my way home. Hiroshi Kato, who was then the Dean of the Faculty of Policy Management, told us, "You are international students from the future." He said that with a completely new curriculum featuring subjects like information processing, foreign languages, and fieldwork, we could create our own scholarship freely and flexibly. He also said that with a faculty brought in from overseas and the campus's cutting-edge computer network, it would feel almost like going to an overseas university. I was instantly captivated, thinking it was amazing.

How was it after you entered?

Since my family home was nearby, I would stay until the last bus, hanging out at the Media Center (library) and taking any classes I liked, regardless of whether they were Environment or Policy. In addition to most of the information processing classes, I took Jiro Tamura's international law, Atsushi Kusano's politics, Heizo Takenaka's economics, and Mitsuaki Okabe's international finance. Of course, I also took Jun Murai's classes. My seminar was Masaru Tomita's life sciences seminar. I absorbed everything like a sponge.

From the latter half of my third year through my fourth year, I also audited the entrepreneurship program hosted by Cornell University and the Industrial Bank of Japan, coordinated by Mitsuyo Hanada. I audited Kiyonori Sakakibara's classes on corporate strategy and innovation, and since my background is Taiwanese, I also audited Tomoyuki Kojima's regional studies seminar. In that way, I satisfied my curiosity and thirst for knowledge.

Looking back, it was an environment where I could virtually experience a future 10 or 20 years ahead, with cutting-edge IT and the removal of academic boundaries, allowing my imagination to expand.

Next, I'd like to hear about your respective overseas experiences. When I first lived in the U.S. as a researcher, I felt like I understood America, but I didn't understand it at all, and I had a hard time. It was right when 9/11 happened, and it felt like my life changed. Mr. Yoshiura, how was America for you?

My posting to Washington in 2013 was my first opportunity to live in the U.S. There were certainly things I could only see and know by living there. To put it simply, it is a country where people of many ethnicities and diverse values gather, and I felt that it is a country that is inherently divided to some extent. I think traditional American presidential elections were an attempt to integrate that divided state once every four years.

The presidential election, which was supposed to integrate the division, went in a different direction in 2016. What was it like seeing it up close?

I had returned to Japan by the time Trump finally won the 2016 presidential election, but during my posting, I covered things like the Republican primaries. When Trump made outrageous remarks at rallies and other venues, the room would be filled with laughter or smirks. When I asked fellow reporters, they said that men drinking at pubs were watching scenes of Trump speaking on TV, banging on the bar counters and laughing uproariously.

In other words, he was saying what many people were thinking in their hearts but weren't supposed to say, breaking the celebrity-like manners and morals required of those who govern the country. This was likely accepted positively by some people as him being an "honest man."

However, I didn't think Trump would go as far as winning the presidential election, so the result of that election was unexpected.

Was living in Washington as a correspondent for Kyodo News exactly as you had imagined?

Since the time is exactly opposite to Japan, in terms of newspaper work hours, I would work in the Washington morning with the deadline for the Japanese morning edition in mind. Then, during the day, from the evening over there, it becomes the work for the Japanese morning edition. Keeping that in mind, from late afternoon to night, I would imagine the situation in Japan half a day ahead and write manuscripts for the morning edition.

If that didn't go well, I would end up working from the middle of the night through the early morning hours, so at first, how to secure sleep was a very big challenge. But gradually, my body and mind got used to it. I feel like I was able to manage that well through ingenuity.

Looking back, the work in Washington was so interesting that I would get immersed in whatever I was doing. As a result, I didn't have much time to go out for meals, and the frequency of eating cup noodles increased significantly compared to when I was in Japan.

On the other hand, I feel like Mr. Kato was seeing a completely different America.

Even though I say America, I was in Arizona and Florida for quite a long time for spring training. The league was the New York-Penn League, which spanned regions in New York and Pennsylvania.

Could you speak English to begin with?

To be honest, it wasn't much (laughs). The first time I went to America was for the baseball team's U.S. tour during my third year of university. At that time, an SFC senior said, "If you've been doing SFC English, you'll be fine." I wondered if that was true, but in SFC English classes, you can't speak a word of Japanese, right? So, I had developed a habit of having to speak in English no matter what. Because of that, I think SFC students were able to adapt quite well.

When SFC was founded, Professor Takao Suzuki reportedly said it wasn't English, but "Englic." I experienced firsthand that English where the most important thing is just being able to speak is what matters.

The place I went on that U.S. tour was Mesa, Arizona, which is just below Phoenix, and that was the home of the Chicago Cubs' minor league team. I thought I would never go there again, but miraculously, I ended up going to the same place.

As for life in the minor leagues, Mr. Yoshiura mentioned eating nothing but cup noodles, but our team's sponsor was Subway, and it was all-you-can-eat, so it was Subway almost every day. A minor leaguer's starting salary is $800 a month, so I didn't want to spend money, and since we had games every day, there was no time to actually go out. It was really nothing but Subway, to the point where I thought I'm good with Subway for the rest of my life (laughs).

So, you don't go to the Subway on campus now?

That's right. But the ones in Japan are delicious (laughs). I managed to play one season of baseball without being released, but during spring training the following year, the management structure changed completely. I thought I'd be able to play this season too, but on March 31st—a day I'll never forget, the day before the season was to start—I was released.

In the old movie "Major League," when you open your locker, there's a red slip of paper that says "Released." In my case, there was actually a Post-it note stuck there, and I was actually impressed, thinking, "Oh, so this is it" (laughs). I was 23 or 24 at the time, and at that age, if you're not close to the majors, you get cut.

Mr. Kato, you were doing research on why a baseball appears to stop mid-air. Did your experience in America lead to that?

Yes. I actually entered graduate school to research programming and data analysis, but I wanted to pursue the mysterious experiences I encountered while playing baseball.

I was very interested in things like entering "the zone." Professor Tadahiko Fukuda, who was researching vision at SFC at the time, told me, "What you're doing is amazing from an academic perspective." That was the first time I realized that what I had been doing could become an academic theme.

Professor Fukuda said, "People talk about 'the pen and the sword' (Bunbu Ryodo) as two separate paths, but they are not two paths; if you pursue them to the end, they are actually one." I believe I am who I am today because of those words.

Ms. Hirose, you entered the path of a researcher after finishing your undergraduate studies. What was the catalyst for deciding to study the Caucasus region rather than Russia or Moscow?

Actually, at first, I thought I would become an international civil servant after finishing my master's at SFC. However, the professors all told me that even if you become an international civil servant, you'll just be sent to war zones or remote areas of Africa, and it won't last even if you get married. They said that especially for women who might want children, being a researcher is better because you can adjust the pace of your life.

On the other hand, since I was in the second graduating class at the time, while a graduate school had been established at SFC, the Doctoral Programs had not yet been created. So, I took the exam for the researcher training course at the Graduate Schools for Law and Politics at the University of Tokyo and fortunately passed.

When I entered graduate school, I intended to do international politics broadly, but international politics is quite elusive, so I felt it would be better to firmly decide on a research region and use it as a perspective. So, the first reason was that I decided to go with the former Soviet region, which I was originally drawn to, but since there were already a fair number of experts on Russia, I wanted to focus on a region that no one else was working on.

As a second reason, I wanted to study ethnic conflicts in the former Soviet Union, and among the many ethnic conflicts, there was one that looked distinct. That was the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia. All other conflicts in the former Soviet Union were civil wars, but Nagorno-Karabakh alone was a "war" between the states of Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Armenians are scattered all over the world as a diaspora, and they were aggressively broadcasting their position in English and French. So, at a glance, only information favorable to Armenia would enter one's view. However, looking at the actual essence of the conflict, Russia was supporting Armenia, so the Armenian side had the advantage and was occupying 20% of Azerbaijan's territory. Despite this, the U.S. was also imposing economic sanctions on Azerbaijan, excluding humanitarian aid, due to the influence of the Armenian lobby.

I thought that was far too unfair and that I wouldn't be able to grasp the essence unless I researched it from the Azerbaijani side as well. So, I wanted to study on-site and conduct research from a neutral standpoint.

I was selected as a member of the first class of the United Nations University's Akino Memorial Fellowship and gained the opportunity to conduct research in Azerbaijan for over a year. From there, I have been conducting research on the Caucasus, centered on Azerbaijan, and by extension, regional studies of the former Soviet Union.

What foreign languages did you study as an undergraduate?

I took intensive English. There was only basic Russian. I think this is not good, even now that I've become a faculty member. In today's SFC, there isn't a single Slavic language.

Since Russian is also an official language of the UN, I think it should be there. Russian was insufficient at SFC, so I studied it independently by attending the Keio Gaigo and the Nikolai Institute.

What was life like in Azerbaijan?

At the time, there were simply no Japanese people, so when I walked down the street or rode the subway, people would stare so intensely it felt like they were boring holes into my body. I hated that. Also, if they saw a Japanese person, they seemed to think I was rich, so the demands for bribes were incredible.

It was worst especially when I tried to cross the border into Georgia for research; about ten border guards would line up and all point their gun barrels at me. They rummaged through all my luggage and took all the money they found. I was treated like a terrorist, and I lived a life drinking muddy water with refugees in refugee camps; I really had all sorts of experiences.

I lived in the center of the capital, Baku, and the first thing I did when I woke up was store water. Water only came out in the morning and late at night. Moreover, the water was pink, and it was such a strong color that if I did laundry, white T-shirts would turn pink. Power outages also happened frequently, so I got used to living by candlelight.

Through my life in Azerbaijan, I gained the confidence that I can survive anywhere.

You've had some amazing experiences. I've heard that Mr. Hayashi also went wandering after finding employment.

My period of wandering began after changing companies about twice. Before that, immediately after graduation, I went to Seattle, USA, to study abroad. I went there with groundless confidence, thinking that I would be further refined if I returned from America, but I returned after a spectacular failure.

One aspect was language; my TOEFL score improved rapidly in the first six months, but it didn't grow beyond that. At that time, I felt for the first time that there are things humans cannot do even if they try their best.

Also, there were about 30 companions who went from Japan with me to study abroad, and they were a diverse group. Spending the curriculum together made me realize that even among fellow international students from Japan, our awareness and values were fundamentally different.

Furthermore, I lived with a host family there, and it was a shock that their lifestyle and views on family were so different. In Japan, I lived with my grandparents and led a disciplined, good old Japanese life. However, the family I stayed with for the first six months was a shocking situation: a host mother who was so focused on her own romantic life that she neglected child-rearing, and a son who started smoking drugs because his heart was unfulfilled in a broken home.

In contrast, the family I lived with in the second half took in a girl as a foster child who had suffered severe disabilities due to child abuse by drug-addicted parents. Through the deep love of that family, she miraculously became able to live independently. I was confronted with both sides of America—the unexpected depth of its heart and its state of devastation—and my values and preconceptions were violently shaken.

After returning to Japan following such repeated failures and conflicts, I found a job. First, I spent three years at a foreign consulting firm, and after that, I spent about three years at Sony's in-house consulting firm. I was so busy that I couldn't attend my friends' weddings or be present at my grandfather's deathbed. I wondered if it was okay to keep working like this, and I boarded the Peace Boat to search for my significance as a Taiwanese person living in Japan and to look at my values once more.

There were all kinds of people there, including film directors, university professors, nurses, women working in the nightlife industry, investment bankers, and pachinko parlor employees. In that environment, I lived and socialized with them on the ship for three months, associating with people across generations and professions.

Traveling around various countries that way, I even went to Colonel Gaddafi's house in Libya. Since he was trying to appeal to foreigners by showing how his house had been bombed by the US military, I wrote "independence and self-respect" in the guestbook and had debates with Libyan diplomats.

It was a journey that allowed me to meet many different people and see countries with different religious and historical views, as well as different positions and systems. It made me think in a multifaceted and pluralistic way about how there are people living and making choices within those contexts.

A while ago, it was often said that Japanese people had stopped studying abroad. But looking at students today, it has become much easier to go overseas compared to 20 or 30 years ago, and many students go for short periods.

In such a context, the term "global talent" is often used, but I feel uneasy about what "global talent" actually means. I wonder if such a thing really exists.

Even looking at the four of you here, you have all followed completely different paths, so I don't think we can collectively call you "global talent." I believe each individual accumulates various experiences and connects them to their career, but what kind of advice would you give to current students?

When living in a global world, how has your experience at SFC been useful, or not useful? From now on, many people will be coming into Japan, and I think a new form of globalization will begin. What are your thoughts on that?

I think that from the time it was established, SFC was a place where returnees—so-called "kikoku"—and "otaku" stood out. When those people went out into society, they were sometimes treated as heretics, but at least while they were at SFC, neither they nor those around them felt they were that heretical. After 30 years, those people no longer look like heretics in today's Japanese society; rather, haven't they come to be recognized as useful talent?

When you are in the minority, you are called a heretic, but if that is evaluated and you become the majority, you are called a reformer or a revolutionary. In that sense, I feel that the atmosphere and human relationships that have existed within SFC since 30 years ago are permeating society, and a kind of quiet revolution is currently underway.

On the other hand, what I think from being on the front lines of news reporting every day is that values are diversifying, and it is becoming difficult to say, "This is the correct answer." In that context, I am consciously working on one of the major roles of the media today: showing a perspective, such as why this is the most important news today or how we want people to view this event, and presenting new options.

In a world of diverse values, I believe that society undergoing globalization needs people who do not have "this is the value" taught to them by others, but who think for themselves about what is valuable, communicate that to others, and contribute to someone's happiness by realizing something.

Therefore, I certainly want people to go abroad from Japan, but looking back 30 years, I feel that the fact that SFC itself is a global society is perhaps more valuable.

When I go to the ministries in Kasumigaseki, I'm told that SFC kids are very interesting and useful. It certainly feels like the world has caught up, or rather, an atmosphere has emerged suggesting that this way is more interesting and correct.

When I entered SFC, I thought it was actually a harsh environment to be faced with a curriculum that removed the boundaries of academic disciplines and be told to choose for myself at my own responsibility. You have to create your own axis or your own scholarship while being given freedom. I had a sense of crisis during my student days that if I didn't do that, I would become a nobody by the time I graduated.

I think such an experience was good. There may be side effects in the process, but that is exactly why you end up thinking about what you are interested in or who you are. I think my time at SFC really made me use my head and think about those things. It's not just in the sense of studying, but being asked by yourself what is important. I feel that everyone who can create the future across borders has this personal axis within their connections with others.

There is a businessman named Dan Osano who went from Keio Yochisha Elementary School to Chutobu Junior High School, graduated from SFC High School, and left the Doctoral Programs of the Graduate School of Economics after earning the required credits. He is a multi-talented person also known as a poet and novelist, and he said that SFC is the place that embodies the spirit of Keio University left by Yukichi Fukuzawa.

According to him, at Keio, they talked about jitsugaku (science), independence and self-respect, and "learning while teaching, teaching while learning." He said that SFC is actually the place that practiced these three things in their complete form.

Independence and self-respect is exactly right; SFC is a place where you have to somehow create your own scholarship. I have high expectations for it as a place that removes not only the boundaries of academic disciplines but also the boundaries of countries and generations.

Professor Hirose is the Director of the SFC Media Center, and Professor Kato is in a position like the head of physical education, and both of you struggled a lot with this COVID-19 situation. There were questions like whether physical education classes could be done online, and for Professor Hirose, it has become difficult to do overseas fieldwork.

In an era that has promoted globalization, it feels like our hands and feet are being tied by the pandemic. What are your thoughts on the front lines of education?

I have also traditionally held the view that to do international research, you must go to the site. After all, I think there are many things you can only experience because you went there. Eating local food, feeling the air, sensing the standard of living at a supermarket.

For example, even if you talk to people overseas online, in a world that can only be seen within the scope of being online, what you can see is limited. This connects to the talk about global talent, but I think that if you are going to be active globally, it is very important to go to the site.

My motto when I go abroad is a borrowed phrase from Sadako Ogata: "Understand." "Understand" means to comprehend, but to understand, you have to look from a perspective lower than the other person. For example, if I go to Azerbaijan and say the living standard is low and look at it from a superior perspective, I will stop seeing what should be seen. I think there are many things you can only understand by looking from below.

In addition, I think you can only be active globally by having a good balance of both the flexibility to "do as the Romans do" and the strength not to lose your own axis as a Japanese person, rather than just immersing yourself in the other party. The same goes for the COVID-19 issue, but it is also important to be equipped with the flexibility and resilience to manage crises when the unexpected happens, and I think SFC students are relatively well-equipped in that regard.

In my seminar, there are students who take a leave of absence to travel around the world, or students who went to Bosnia and Herzegovina for a long period, and they are living robustly in various places. I think global literacy is gradually acquired through such experiences, so the current era where online is forced has become a very difficult time for fostering future global talent.

First of all, I just pray that COVID-19 will subside soon and an environment where we can freely go abroad will return. However, while we cannot see how many years the current situation will last, I think a greedy attitude will be required to understand worlds we don't know while getting close to the other party, doing things like the former "Kremlinology"—reading between the lines of conversation while making full use of online tools.

Professor Kato, I think you struggled a lot, such as having students create SFC calisthenics, but what are your thoughts?

Looking back, when I went to America, I felt like a representative of Japan. Although I'm not a typical Japanese person, I felt like I had to say Japanese-like things or teach people how to hold chopsticks, and I feel like my world gradually expanded from there.

Thinking about it now, I think it was good that I thought about my identity—what am I—while I was at SFC.

This also connects to the research on vision that I am currently doing, but I think it is very important to think not just about a spatial perspective but a temporal perspective—like, I am here now, but what should I do next? I feel that this leads to the idea of "thinking about the future, not the present" that SFC has considered since its establishment, and it is exactly the phrase "students from the future."

One of the philosophies of SFC is "problem finding" and "problem solving." Instead of being given a problem by someone or being taught the correct answer, you literally find the problem yourself and think of the solution yourself. At SFC, it is required that learning the knowledge and techniques for that is a matter of course. I think the students responded to that very well. In that sense, too, I think SFC naturally had a global orientation.

With the COVID-19 situation, I truly feel the importance of moving the body and the heart once again. Yukichi Fukuzawa left the writing "Shin-tai Ken-ko Sei-shin Katsu-patsu" (A healthy body and a vigorous spirit). The body should be healthy and the spirit should be active. That remains as the most important thing in the philosophy when the Wellness Center was established at SFC, and I am still exploring how to move the body and maintain mental health even in the COVID-19 situation.

After all, I think the most important thing is "jinkan kosai (society)." While emphasizing independence and self-respect, Yukichi Fukuzawa said that the importance of socializing with others, even though one is an individual, is equally important. So, I thought a lot about how to achieve communication in online classes.

In the spring semester, we tried various things like everyone making the calisthenics I mentioned earlier or connecting through apps, but I think the fundamental point is how to realize jinkan kosai (society) precisely because of this situation.

As members of the 1st, 2nd, and 4th graduating classes, you are all tasked with the role of leading as SFC's front-runners forever, and your way of life is the very result of SFC. How do you all envision the future 10 or 20 years from now? Also, what do you expect from current students? I would like to have a final word from each of you.

After Peace Boat, I joined a trading company and worked at Mitsui & Co. until three years ago. After that, I went to an internet venture, and during that time, I also experienced being stationed in Taiwan and Beijing.

Then, through a connection, I returned to Taiwan. The individual investor to whom I transferred a business during my trading company days is now the owner of King's Town Bank and Taiwan Pulp & Paper Corporation, where I am now. I am in a position of following him, as he has a management philosophy that emphasizes sociality and ties with the community. In an era like this, which is uncertain and rich in diversity, Japan, where peer pressure is excessively strong, will inevitably require individuals to make judgments and face their own integrity and true roles with independence.

Japanese companies create three-year or five-year plans where they make detailed plans through a consensus system and then just execute them under everyone's responsibility, but neither China nor Taiwan makes such things. Since it is natural for there to be unexpected changes, they are flexible and adaptable, tolerant of people and things, speedy, and strong against change. In times of emergency, those who can do it take charge with courage and carry it out with a sense of the whole and transparency in unity. There is a kind of resilience, or a toughness and grit that doesn't let them stay down even if they fall. I think such things will inevitably permeate Japanese society more and more.

Until a few years ago, I was practicing "sontaku" (conforming to others' unspoken wishes) in Japan, but through my experiences in Taiwan and China, I have recently felt that a transformation, to use a trendy word, has taken place within me. I imagine that 10 years from now, I will have changed into someone on the side of creating such things while working between Japan and Taiwan, and Japan and Asia.

Speaking with self-reflection, when I first started researching conflict, I wanted to be a person who researched and spoke from a neutral standpoint, but as I continue conflict research, that has become extremely difficult.

In terms of the relationship between Azerbaijan and Armenia, I inevitably end up being positioned like an advocate for Azerbaijan. Furthermore, I have also come to be positioned like an ally of countries hostile to Russia. For example, during the Ukraine crisis, I started speaking at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan with the Ukrainian ambassador, and naturally, I am viewed critically by Russia. That goes against my original intention of wanting to research neutrally, so it is very uncomfortable.

At the same time, I have always hoped that Japan could contribute more to peace in various countries from a neutral standpoint. For the past few years, I have had opportunities to offer opinions to the Minister for Foreign Affairs regarding the former Soviet region, and I am actually involved in policy. However, in actual diplomacy, Japan also has to be mindful of Russia, making it difficult to act neutrally.

That is very regrettable. Since I am just one researcher with little power, I think it is difficult to contribute to mediating peace, but I want to become able to contribute to peace more substantially, not just by writing papers.

Even if I cannot do it myself, I want to foster talent who can support it and work with the government to contribute to the Japanese government fulfilling such a role. Toward 10 and 20 years from now, I first want to foster such talent through education at SFC.

I have a desire to see and create a new world of sports. I have been researching e-sports since about the year before last, but since it is like the polar opposite of conventional sports, people involved in sports tell me, "You betrayed us" (laughs). But I think the virtual world will probably progress further in the future.

Recently, even elementary school students are communicating normally in English with people overseas while playing e-sports. In a world where that actually exists, I think we need to rethink "what it means to do sports."

Since Keio University does not have a Faculty of Sport Science to begin with, I hope there will be a place within Keio where people interested in research on sports and moving the body can gather. People researching fields unrelated to sports can conversely provide interesting perspectives, so I think the ability to do that is a characteristic of Keio University.

Furthermore, I hope the Athletic Association will also develop in a new form. Recently, students have joined the baseball and volleyball clubs not as players but as analysts. That is a very new trend, and I think it's interesting. I think it's important to create a place where students can do research and also be active practically.

Also, regarding wellness, which SFC has emphasized since its establishment, I want students to understand why there are subjects like physical education and mental and physical wellness, rather than just taking classes. In the 1990s, when university deregulation occurred, many universities removed physical education from their required courses, but conversely, there is now a trend saying that physical education is important. I hope SFC can take the lead in promoting that aspect.

I don't know what will happen to major media like the one I'm in 10 years from now, but I still believe the role of news agencies is significant. Constantly broadcasting news in real-time. This is related to one of my formative experiences when SFC was established—being connected to the world through a network and immediately knowing what was happening in the world.

Precisely because it is an era overflowing with various information, I want to continue the work of prioritizing information in my own way and providing the materials for judgment so that everyone can live better. The "future" of the era in which we, the students from the future, are living is happening now, and the future for us will continue. I'm really glad I was a student from the future.

When I think about why SFC was so much fun, one reason is that it was overflowing with "intellectual excitement." Another is that the people were interesting. Current students must be experiencing that as well. I really want them to understand that this is a period where they are accumulating something irreplaceable within their own bodies through such learning and interactions with people.

The things obtained there, the things felt from the people met, and the things that became one's strength will probably be very big hints and powers when thinking about how to live after graduation. I expect that SFC will become such a place even more so in the future, as it has been until now.

To add one thing, I think the reason I had so much fun for four years was that the professors generously devoted their own time to the students. At that time, the number of students and classes was small, so I think the professors had some leeway. For example, Professor Tomoyuki Kojima, who was my advisor, would call me personally and say, "I'm free, so set up a drinking party," in that kind of casual tone.

Currently, we are too busy and don't have that kind of leeway. We have office hours and ask people to email in advance, but in the past, there was a relaxed atmosphere where you were allowed to go to the professor's office at any time without making an appointment.

Now, all the professors are very busy, and I think that kind of leeway has completely disappeared. I thought it would be nice if we could once again embody a relaxed SFC that reminds us of that former situation.

I want to regain the good parts, add new things, and make it a good campus.

University life is only four years. But all four of you said today that those four years were fun, and I think it was a good era.

I don't know if current students feel they have lost half a year of these four years to the COVID-19 pandemic, or if they feel it was a precious half-year of continuing to take classes online, but I hope they return to campus, spend a student life that is fun and overflowing with intellectual excitement, and 30 years later, be able to say, "Ah, those were the good old days."

We will continue our efforts to achieve that. Thank you all for taking the time out of your busy schedules today.