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Message for the 2025 Fall Entrance Ceremony

To all our new students, congratulations on your enrollment at Niigata University. On behalf of Niigata University, I would like to express my heartfelt congratulations to you all.

I believe that all of you have gathered here today with various dreams and hopes for the future. For those of you that have come from overseas, you must be feeling both hopeful and anxious about living in Japan.

As of today, you will have the opportunity to experience many new encounters and learning at Niigata University. A university is a “space of learning” where people from diverse backgrounds gather together. Over 10,000 students are here at Niigata University. Thus, university life is an important time where you will meet diverse people, and where you will inspire each other and grow as individuals through communicating with each other. Not only will you meet people, but you will also experience various events and irreplaceable encounters. Please cherish all of these encounters which will enable you to experience an abundant and productive life at the university.

On the occasion of your enrollment, I would like to share Niigata University’s philosophy with you. Niigata University’s philosophy is “Autonomy and Creativity.” “Autonomy” refers to establishing your own standards and acting on it, and “Creativity” refers to creating something new. This means not imitating others, but instead developing a habit of constantly establishing your own standards by yourself. Education at Niigata University is based on this philosophy. Throughout your student life at our university, I hope that you will be able to take to heart the philosophy of “Autonomy and Creativity” while expanding your scope of learning.

Niigata University’s current mission is becoming “a front-runner of future life innovation.” “Life innovation” is not simply confined to the fields of medical care, health, and welfare. It also refers to the “existence,” “whole life,” “way of living,” “the ideal society,” and “involvement with the environment” for people living in the 21st century, as well as the innovation for creating new value and meaning for the earth and nature which form the foundation of these factors. In other words, the “life innovation” which Niigata University aims to achieve is innovation which brings happiness to humanity. In this way, Niigata University’s aim is to foster research which contributes to the future of human society and to nurture individuals who will actively participate in the future of our society.

The world is full of events which are impossible or difficult to predict. The COVID-19 pandemic had an immense effect on our society. We also face climate change and numerous natural disasters as well as increasingly intensifying, large-scale changes in the world order brought about by various wars and international situations. Furthermore, our society today is filled with a multitude of challenges which need to be overcome such as widening inequality and poverty. These are global issues that require us to find ways to tackle them and to take action. We find ourselves having to live through times which are difficult to predict and full of challenges.

I believe in such times, if there is a path towards paving the future, it will be through “science” and “learning”. Science and learning enable us to predict the future with greater precision and hold the power to make our lives more abundant.

Digital transformation (DX) is accelerating and the technology of generative AI has also been developing rapidly recently. Moreover, globalization is advancing. You will be paving a path towards the future under these circumstances and I hope that you will develop the ability to survive in the future with what you learn at Niigata University. In order to do so, I encourage you to lead a productive university life by holding close to your heart Niigata University’s philosophy of “Autonomy and Creativity,” sharing the university’s mission of becoming “a front-runner of future life innovation,” and having an awareness of yourself and society. Always develop your intellectual curiosity and do not forget the importance of learning as you steadily pursue the dreams you have at the start of university.

Once again, I would like to express my sincerest congratulations to you all. Please accept my heartfelt felicitations. I would like to end my speech by wishing you all a truly rewarding university life.

October 1, 2025
USHIKI Tatsuo, M.D., Ph.D.
President, Niigata University