President’s Address at the 2019 Saitama University Commencement
The lingering summer heat in September has finally begun to subside, and the season
is moving toward autumn. Then, the Saitama University campus will move to acolorful outfit. Congratulations to all of you who are here to celebrate your graduationfrom Saitama University on such a good day. I would also like to extend my heartfelt
congratulations to those who have supported you.
The numbers of graduates who got degrees today is 86 in total, and 56 of them arefrom 17 countries, namely Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Cameroon, China,France, Korea, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Senegal, Sri Lanka, UK,USA, and Vietnam. In addition, the ratio of graduates in the humanities and naturalsciences is about 3 to 4. This award ceremony is full of diversity unique to Saitama
University All in One Campus at Metropolitan Area Saitama.
You have met a variety of professors and colleagues at Saitama University, where you
have come into contact with a variety of disciplines to advance your learning andresearch. The sense of fulfillment that each of you now feels is the fruit of your ownenthusiasm and effort in the process leading up to your degree. I would like to express
my heartfelt respect for this, and I hope you to continue to play an active role in yourrespective career path by fully utilizing your experience at Saitama University.
However, it seems to be difficult in the future society. For example, industry andacademia are currently discussing the future of recruitment and university educationin the context of employment issues specific to Japan. Regardless of whether their
final specialty is humanities or natural sciences, human resources in the upcoming
Society 5.0 era require not only literacy in areas such as mathematical reasoning,data analysis, logical expression, and foreign language communication, but alsoabilities of logical thinking, normative judgment, problem-finding, problem-solving,
and future society planning. In order to acquire these, liberal arts education as afoundation is important.
Society 5.0 is the future society that Japan advocated as a successor to Society 1.0 as
hunting society, Society 2.0 as agricultural society, Society 3.0 as industrial society
and Society 4.0 as information society. The environment surrounding the world is in aperiod of major change, and social issues that must be resolved against economic
development are becoming increasingly complex. As a country with advanced issues,Japan aims to realize Society 5.0, which achieves both economic development and theresolution of social issues by introducing new technologies such as IoT, robots, AI, andbig data. In Society 5.0, AI and robots based on big data will act as agents and support
human tasks and coordination, and everyone will lead a comfortable, vibrant andhigh-quality life. This is each individual human-centered society, leading to theachievement of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals; SDGs, but is not the futurecontrolled and monitored by AI and robots. For that reason, the human resources whoare responsible for the society need logical thinking and normative judgment.

1Meanwhile, an interview with Yuval Noah Harari, the author of "Sapiens: A Brief
History of Humankind", was reported in the Asahi Newspaper on September 8, thisyear. "With the power of AI and biotechnology, a handful of elite people may dominate
most of humanity as Useless Class, and computers with rapidly improving algorithms
may dominate humanity in the future." And, "Even at the personal level, there areconcerns about the so-called 'data control' in which data collected on the internet areused by computers to determine a person's preferences. But instead of leaving thechoice to the computer, you need to know your own weaknesses and characteristics tocompete with the computer." AI will continue to evolve, and people will be forced toreform themselves over and over again.
As Charles Darwin in "Evolutionary Theory" put it, "The strongest will not survive,
and the wisest will not. The only ones who can survive are those who can change." Inorder to adapt to the coming age of coexisting with AI, it seems necessary to reform
ourselves, that is, to "change".
Regarding this "change", Dr. T. Saito, a psychiatrist who has long been involved in theclinical practice of social withdrawal, points out the importance of "dialogue". He says,"There are various ways in which people change people, but the royal road is tochange through dialogue. To the question of whether dialogue changes people, I caneasily answer, 'change'. But will you change your mind when someone else preaches
you? I probably won't. Not only that, but I will be stubborn and even repulsive." Andhe continues: "What is done in the dialogue is an exchange of subjectivity andsubjectivity, not a proper correction of subjectivity. Changes caused by dialogue havenothing to do with any coercion or pressure. The dialogue is based on a thoroughrespect for people’s initiative and spontaneity, resulting in the utilization of theirinherent strengths." It seems that people are likely to change themselves throughdialogue to interact with AI well, rather than relying on AI. What should be noted inthis case is our initiative and spontaneity, as Dr. Saito says.
The importance of dialogue is also mentioned by Prof. S. Kajitani, the Univ. of Tokyo.
According to his words, philosophy, which is also important in Society 5.0, is to ask,
think and talk. We begin to think only by having a question. Even if we think in ourhead, it just floats and disappears, so we need to talk. Talking in proper language
makes our thinking clear. What's more, it would be nice if someone could respond ourtalking, and our thinking would be deeper and richer. Therefore, the dialogue ismeaningful in the senses that the dialogue with others in different standpoints andperspectives naturally broadens and deepens our own way of thinking, and also that
we become aware of what used to be our constraints and able to think about thepossibilities of something different. This also leads to "change".
Today's degree is a milestone, and your study continues forever. I would also like to
see you take a flexible approach to "change" through repeated thinking and dialogue,
based on a proactive and spontaneous "question". I sincerely hope that each and every
one of you will do well in the future society.
September 20, 2019

Hiroki Yamaguchi, President, Saitama University2