69ÊÓƵapp

Let me begin by congratulating the 2,824 undergraduate students who are graduating from 69ÊÓƵapp today. On behalf of our guests of honor -- former presidents Dr Hiroo Imura, Dr Kazuo Oike, and Dr Juichi Yamagiwa -- as well as our executive vice-presidents, deans and directors, and all of the University's faculty, staff, and students, I extend our heartfelt congratulations to each and every one of you. Your family members, relatives, and others who have provided you with support and encouragement throughout your academic journey must be very proud of you. I would also like to express our deepest gratitude and congratulations to them as well. In 2022 we celebrated the 125th anniversary of the establishment of 69ÊÓƵapp. The students gathered here today are now among the 228,767 who have been awarded undergraduate degrees in the 125 years since Kyoto Imperial University held its first graduation ceremony in 1900.

Let us recall that many of you entered 69ÊÓƵapp in 2021 in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, and you began your university life under significant restrictions. The virus was reclassified as a Category V Infectious Disease in 2023 and is now largely under control, but the voluntary stay-at-home advice and other activity restrictions that were in place for more than three whole years during the pandemic seem to have had considerable impact on people's lifestyles. One aspect of this is the dramatic expansion of information exchange through online social media. I imagine that, in addition to face-to-face dialogue and discussions, exchanges using social media have come to account for an even larger proportion of your day-to-day communications with peers and faculty members than they did previously. Online teaching has become more mainstream in universities, and we now have easy access to a diverse range of digital information on political and social developments and messages from around the world using online platforms, in addition to conventional mass media such as newspapers and television. In the US, 69ÊÓƵapp, and elsewhere, it is now commonplace for major national policy decisions to be announced directly through the personal social media accounts of political leaders. Even in Japan, information dissemination through social media is wielding a degree of influence in various election contexts.

In the 20th century, the prompt and widespread transmission of information online was touted as a means of achieving a decentralized society free from prejudice and discrimination, in which people around the world could connect with one another directly: in other words, a safer, more transparent, and more democratic "technoutopia". Looking at the world today, however, it is difficult to be so optimistic about the chances of realizing this vision, founded as it is on belief in the goodness of human nature. For example, one of the many problems associated with the rapid popularization of social media is that of the truthfulness and falsity of information. In volume 359 of the American scholarly journal Science, a group of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) published a very interesting article entitled "The spread of true and false news online" (Soroush Vosoughi, Deb Roy, Siman Aral (2018) The spread of true and false news online, Science, Vol. 359 Issue 6380, pp.1146¨C1151). The researchers surveyed 126,000 news stories posted on Twitter (now X) from 2006 to 2017, a period of over 11 years. These stories -- covering topics including natural disasters, science, the economy, and politics -- were tweeted a total of 4.5 million times by 3 million users. Based on fact-checks conducted by several highly reliable third-party organizations, the researchers identified some of the stories as clearly false and then analyzed how they had spread.

The results were startling. The false news items were 70% more likely to be retweeted than the true ones, and they traveled six times faster, penetrating further, wider, and more deeply. The reasons for this bias toward fake news are unclear, but what is somewhat clear is that most retweeting activity was done by humans rather than by bots (automated computer programs). The finding that fake news spreads more quickly than true news has been made repeatedly since the age of the telegraph in the 19th century, long before the internet was invented. As it happens, this year is the 100th anniversary of first radio broadcast in Japan, which took place in 1925. The spread of fake news is not just a topic of research in science and technology; it is an issue that needs to be tackled by historians, political scientists, and other humanities and social science researchers as well.

In any case, the lesson to be learned from this research is to "investigate carefully" before accepting information seen on social media. To do so, you need to exercise critical thinking. This means that when making judgments and decisions, you should not simply accept any given statement at face value, but rather verify your own thought processes for yourself. Careful assessment involves asking the following questions: Is there adequate data for analysis? Are the assumptions valid? Is the process logical? Is there any bias stemming from conventional thinking, personal preferences, or other emotional factors? This might seem arduous, but by making these thought processes habitual, you can avoid reaching arbitrary, reflexive judgments. In the context of critical thinking, the word "critical" naturally does not mean attacking or condemning others, or shooting down their arguments. For this reason, in media literacy education in Japan, the word "critical" in critical thinking is often translated to ginmi, which denotes careful scrutiny. Of course, you also need the generosity of spirit to acknowledge the possibility that you may be wrong, even if your judgment is based on careful consideration.

Another problem that has been identified in relation to social media is the indiscriminate use of stock phrases and clich¨¦s, which impoverishes the language and discourse exchanged among individuals. In his 2017 book On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century (Tim Duggan Books, 2017), the Yale University professor and historian Timothy Snyder writes that repetition of clich¨¦s brings to mind the surveillance society of which English author George Orwell warned in his 1949 dystopian novel 1984. In this novel, set in the near future at the time, the dictatorial leader not only monitors people's private lives through telescreens, but adopts a novel form of language called Newspeak. The fundamental principle of Newspeak is to radically streamline language and reduce the volume of vocabulary, thereby simplifying and narrowing the scope of people's thinking. For example, the word "free" can only be used in Newspeak in the sense of "this dog is free from lice". Its use to denote freedom of thought or political freedom is not permitted. If words disappear, the concepts will eventually disappear too, so loss of vocabulary and narrowing of concepts leads to a decline in the quality of thought and discourse, resulting in a more complete surveillance society.

What can we do to prevent this decline in thought and discourse that our society is presently facing? Professor Synder's answer is to read. Earlier I said that we need to "investigate carefully" before we accept the information we are given, but this demands extremely significant investments of time and energy, so is not always possible. What is possible is to read a text written over time by a trusted expert based on thorough investigation. Moreover, if you want to produce a text expressed in rich language and imbued with emotion, the most efficient strategy is to begin by reading masterpieces by talented authors. Such writing differs inherently, in both form and content, from texts produced by generative AI using big data. You may not remember, but in my Entrance Ceremony address four years ago, I quoted Akutagawa Prize winning author Fuminori Nakamura as saying that a person reading a book looks cool, and I advised you to dedicate yourselves to reading well-written texts of all kinds, from literary works to scientific papers. I urge you to continue making the effort to express and communicate your thoughts in your own words, rather than in clich¨¦s and stock phrases.

You are all about to begin a new journey into the working world or the realm of academic research. In the US, the university graduation ceremony is called "commencement", which is a grand celebration. In addition to meaning the "beginning or start of something", the word "commencement" holds meaning as a "ceremony for conferring degrees or diplomas". I think that is because graduation is nothing less than the start of a new life. In your new lives in society, you are sure to experience encounters with a range of people completely different from those you met during your time as a student. Whether it is in research or at work, you will be expected to build interpersonal relationships that are real, not virtual. As one of the lessons of the internet age, Professor Snyder makes the intriguing suggestion that we look the other person in the eye and engage them in small talk. To make eye contact is to acknowledge a person's presence and unavoidability. While a computer does not look back at you, it's difficult to ignore the gaze of another human being. "Small talk" refers to conversations without any particular agenda or interests at stake. There may be times when you need to engage in direct discussion with people whose opinions and standpoints differ from your own. Even in such cases, it would be wise to maintain eye contact and begin the conversation with small talk. In the confined situation during the pandemic, when direct, face-to-face communications with other people were extremely limited, you may have felt vaguely uneasy that you were beginning to lose sight of something important. When sharing space and time with others, we employ each of our senses unconsciously to perceive all kinds of information from our surroundings, integrate that information, and engage in communication. I believe it is this reality that gives rise to understanding and empathy toward others.

In the long journey that you are now embarking on, you might not travel on a straight path with a clear view forward. To mark the start of your new journey, as I do for every graduating class, I would like to leave you with a thought inspired by Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables, written by the Canadian novelist L M Montgomery more than 100 years ago. In this novel, Anne Shirley expresses her excitement about her future using the analogy of a bend in a road and what lies beyond it.

I am sure that you will all encounter many "bends in the road" in your future. There is no need to try to find a shortcut or take the shortest route. You don't need to be afraid of taking detours or roundabout ways, either. Regardless of whether your road ahead leads you to further research or to work outside of academia, I fully anticipate that each and every one of you will boldly spread your wings as a fully-fledged citizen, equipped with a soundly critical spirit, a deep empathy toward others, and a bright, uninhibited optimism.

Once again, please allow me to offer my sincere congratulations to each and every one of you.