The Fukuzawa Spirit: Something You Can Only Understand After Graduating.

Even among financial institutions, securities firms may be less familiar to students than banks. This is probably unavoidable, as many students have had a savings passbook since they were young. In the past, securities firms only dealt with buying and selling stocks, but now their business model has changed to offer customers a very wide variety of products, such as selling government bonds issued by the country, corporate bonds issued by companies, or foreign bonds.

Furthermore, our company, Kyokuto Securities, was listed on the Second Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange in April 2005 and was designated as a First Section issue in March 2006. A common question we get is about the purpose of going public. It is often said that it makes it easier to raise funds or secure human resources, but those are just the obvious benefits. What going public really means is being exposed to public scrutiny and fostering a sense of discipline among all employees. When I explain that we went public because being mindful of public perception leads to the next leap forward, people are often impressed. I believe that by doing good work within the megatrend of "from savings to investment," we can increase our profits and contribute to society.

When thinking about which university to attend, I believe you should choose your faculty while envisioning what you want to do after graduation. I chose the Faculty of Economics because I had a vision of becoming a financier, a man of economics. For example, the financial industry recruits not only from faculties of economics but also from faculties of engineering. However, I decided that if I was going to make a living in economics, it would be best to study at a faculty of economics. There are many paths and options to reach a goal, but I was determined to take the main road.

I decided to aim for A's in the field of economics and studied relentlessly. The best thing about studying at the Faculty of Economics was that by learning the fundamentals of economics, I was able to enter the professional world without any hesitation. For instance, by studying financial terms like the prime rate and the Bank of Japan's current accounts, I could easily understand the language used at work. These were probably terms that general students from other universities wouldn't have understood right away. I also took a seminar in financial economics, which made me feel familiar with securities and economics, and that has been extremely helpful to this day.

In high school, I was just a bookworm, but once I entered university, I focused on building a network of contacts. After entering the workforce, even your own father becomes a competitive relationship through work, so you don't really have anyone you can truly confide in. In contrast, your university years are a time when you can gain an invaluable network through seminars, club activities, and the like.

Another thing I've realized since becoming a working professional is that the Faculty of Economics at Keio is indeed a traditional faculty at a traditional university. When I'm in a somewhat formal setting as a professional and someone asks, "Where did you go to school?" the atmosphere seems to lighten up when I answer that I graduated from Keio's Faculty of Economics. That's something to be grateful for. I feel the tradition of the Keio Faculty of Economics more strongly as the years go by, more so than right after graduation. One of the great things about Keio is that your love for the school grows over 20 or 30 years.

And when you think of Keio, you think of Yukichi Fukuzawa. At Keio, the term "Sensei" (teacher) refers only to Yukichi Fukuzawa. Everyone else can be addressed as "Mr./Ms. XX." At other schools, it's common to say "Professor XX," but at Keio, even the President officially refers to others as "Mr./Ms. XX." I think that's part of the Fukuzawa spirit. This "Fukuzawa spirit" is something you can't understand until you graduate.

I am now in a position of managing a company, and I strive to actively return profits to society. When you go abroad, you see many donations from corporations and others to museums and other institutions. In comparison, I feel that Japan has too few. I believe that if you run a company, it's only natural to return a certain portion of your profits to society. I feel that this spirit of actively participating in social contribution was cultivated through the teachings at the Faculty of Economics at Keio University.

(Interview conducted on May 18, 2005)