��I extend my heartfelt congratulations to all of you students who are officially joining the Kyoto Institute of Technology Graduate School of Science and Technology today. The students gathered here for this 2025 entrance pledge ceremony comprise 30 master’s program students and 23 doctoral program students. On behalf of the faculty and staff of this university, I congratulate your families and the persons who have supported you in your academic journey thus far. As president, I sincerely hope your time at our graduate school will be deeply fulfilling.

��Allow me to share a story from the past. Born in 1865, Nagaoka Hantaro was a pioneer in nuclear physics in Japan in the early 20th century. He also served as the first President of Osaka Imperial University. He was the physicist who, in 1904, proposed what is now considered common knowledge, the atomic model describing electrons orbiting around the nucleus. Many of you who studied Japanese high school physics may recall his name from textbooks. Following Nagaoka’s atomic model came Rutherford’s atomic model, based on experimental results. This, in turn, led to Bohr’s atomic model, which resolved the contradiction of bremsstrahlung, marking the dawn of quantum mechanics.

��Nagaoka began studying physics at the dawn of physics research in Japan. As a student, he agonized over whether ��Japanese people could do science.�� He was concerned that modern science, based in something as unfamiliar as Western Christian thought, might not be truly achievable for persons outside that background. He even contemplated taking a year off to switch to something more familiar, Chinese studies. He considered focusing on classical Chinese texts, philosophy, and classical Chinese literature. However, he renewed his resolve and pursued physics.

��Up until now, all of you have worked hard to learn fundamental theories and ways of thinking that are far removed from everyday experiences and perceptions. The science of quantum mechanics, within my field of electronics engineering, for example, is entirely incompatible with everyday intuition. I have made an effort to grasp some of the concepts, and through contact with graduate student experiments and research, I have encountered phenomena that can be explained by quantum mechanics and have come to accept and understand them.

��Today, as you enter graduate school, you are advancing to a new and more challenging stage of learning. Unlike in undergraduate studies, which primarily focus on acquiring established knowledge, graduate study centers on the creation of new ideas and the generation of original value. This stage is similar to the one Hantaro Nagaoka experienced when he encountered the challenges of proposing a new model of the atom��an act of intellectual innovation rather than one of simple learning. In graduate school, your efforts will shift toward exploring uncharted areas of knowledge. Those involved in basic research will work to expand existing theories, discover new scientific principles, and deepen our understanding of the natural world. Meanwhile, those pursuing applied research will focus on translating scientific principles into real-world innovations and developing practical solutions based on the laws of nature. The way of thinking required to create new knowledge or innovations is different from the mindset used when learning basic theories. You will need to develop new ways of thinking and ideation. That is what learning at the graduate level is all about.

��In graduate school we ask that you master the art of contemplation. In the Japanese traditions of tea ceremony and kendo, the stages of mastery are described by the term shu-ha-ri �����x.

��Graduate school corresponds to the Ha stage. Now students move beyond simply absorbing knowledge and begin to apply fundamental theories, develop original perspectives, and create new forms of understanding. This requires a shift in thinking, one outside familiar deductive and inductive reasoning. It is time to embrace more creative modes of inquiry.

��Many of you are from diverse cultural backgrounds and I imagine your cultures have unique expressions for this kind of creative mindset. Globally, design thinking, art thinking and similar approaches have been developed to support innovation. In Western thought, the idea of abduction��the logic of inquiry��complements deduction and induction as a way of generating new ideas.

��In graduate school, we encourage you not only to master the fundamentals, but also to cultivate this mindset of creativity, experimentation and dialogue. Focused interaction with peers, the exchange of ideas and learning from other disciplines and cultures are all vital aspects of this journey. Ultimately, we expect you to formulate your own questions, explore them in depth, collaborate across disciplines, and contribute to the creation of new knowledge and value.

��May your time in graduate school be productive and enriching. Congratulations to you all.

September 25, 2025
President Masahiro Yoshimoto
Kyoto Institute of Technology

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