Congratulations to everyone who has received a bachelor��s, master��s or doctoral degree today. On behalf of Kyoto Institute of Technology, I extend my heartfelt congratulations. I also want to express my gratitude and congratulations to your family, the professors who have guided you and everyone who has provided you with support.

Today, 603 bachelor��s degrees, 487 master��s degrees, and 31 doctoral degrees, including one thesis doctorate, have been awarded to diligent students. As you are aware, KIT aims to cultivate internationally-minded designers and engineers in the fields of science and technology. Our graduates possess a broad knowledge base, high ethical standards, and the ability to contribute to industry, society and culture with their creativity, execution skills and leadership. We refer to our graduates as ��Tech Leaders,�� and expect you to have acquired three essential skills: specialized knowledge, leadership, and foreign language proficiency. In addition, we have helped you to develop a strong sense of self.

Those of you who have been awarded your bachelor��s degree today have acquired the foundation for becoming a Tech Leader. You have solidified your specialized knowledge base and learned leadership skills through practical course experience, graduation research, and extracurricular activities. Through the rigorous study of English, you have likely experienced improvements in your foreign language proficiency. By interacting with people from various backgrounds, you have solidified your values and beliefs. This is what we call ��establishing oneself�� �� having a solid sense of self in an increasingly diverse society. I believe the broad-based education, which has taught you about the societies and cultures built by humanity, has also contributed to the establishment of your individual identity. From now on, whether you enter the workforce or pursue graduate studies, you will begin to address concrete challenges. I encourage you to fearlessly tackle these challenges, even if it means making mistakes.

Those of you who are receiving your master��s degrees have furthered your specialized knowledge and engaged in research in which you sought to solve specific problems and summarize your work in your master��s thesis. You have experienced the entire process of working towards a solution, from planning and design to evaluation, and have gained the skills necessary for research and development. Those of you who will now pursue doctoral studies should challenge yourselves to create added value.

Now, I would like to speak to those of you who have earned your doctoral degree. Through the creation of your doctoral thesis, you have discovered and solved problems, thereby creating new added value for academia. With both a master��s and doctoral degree, you are now in a position to create new value in society. Those of you who undertook your doctoral degree from a professional background to are about to advance to a different type of value creation, drawing from your work experience.

Before you embark on this new chapter in your life, I would like to discuss an empathy-related concept with you. Your idea of empathy may differ slightly from the one I��m about to share. I am not talking about agreement or the empathy that exists within a group of like-minded individuals.

In his final year, in 2022, the management scholar, Ikujiro Nonaka, introduced the concept of ��empathizing your enemy.�� In his book Survival-Driven Management, he tells how Robert McNamara, who served as the U.S. Secretary of Defense during the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam War, felt that the need for ��empathizing your enemy�� was the greatest lesson he learned from his experiences at that time.

McNamara had used quantitative analysis in becoming a successful manager at a major car manufacturer in the 1950s. After becoming Secretary of Defense in the 1960s, he believed that optimal strategies could be devised with the combination of sufficient computing devices and talented personnel performing quantitative analysis. In practice, however, upper management was only presented with figures lacking context and qualitative information, resulting in a cycle of abstract discussions. McNamara failed to understand the motivations behind the enemy’s actions and decisions. In other words, he never empathized with them. The lesson he learned from the devastating sacrifices of the Vietnam War was ��empathize your enemy.��

Perhaps, during your graduation research or time spent in academic pursuits, you experienced something similar. I recall how my advisor once pointed out that ��my pursuit of quantified data was missing the essence of the problem.” Now, in an era where artificial intelligence guides us toward results, there is even greater need for caution.

What are the lessons learned by ��empathizing your enemy?�� Nonaka continues by saying: ��Empathy requires an effort to understand. It is not about simply agreeing with others, but something much more intellectually rigorous . . . We must resist the pressure to conform, engaging, instead, in thorough dialogue, bringing together the wisdom of all parties involved. . . We must participate in life-or-death deliberations with persons with different subjective perspectives and opinions, and we must do so without self-interest or compromise, to uncover the right course of action.��

Through your interactions with classmates, professors, and like-minded individuals, you have built relationships, communicated, and learned. By gaining knowledge and experiencing a range of things, you have established your values and beliefs. I now encourage you to do this with people who have different subjective views. Engage in thorough discussions with persons who view things differently and hold different beliefs. Work toward empathizing with them. Adding this practice to the Tech Leader qualities that you developed at KIT, I believe you will find success and make meaningful contributions to the creation of the peaceful and prosperous society outlined in our university��s mission statement.

Congratulations once again on your achievements today. I wish you all the best in your future endeavors.

March 21, 2025
Masahiro��Yoshimoto
President, Kyoto Institute of Technology

Source citation:
Yasei no Keiei: Kyokugen no Ridashipu ga Mirai wo Kaeru (Survival-Driven Management: Extreme Leadership Changes the Future) (Ikujiro Nonaka with co-authors Eiki and Yumiko Kawata, 2022, Kadokawa Publishing Co. Ltd.)

��