Ladies and gentlemen! Congratulations on your graduation from Osaka Prefecture University. On behalf of the university, it is my great pleasure to give an address to memorialize this event. My address compares our life to Amida-kuji (It is also called ghost leg lottery as explained below).

Let me review my life. There were a lot of horizontal lines in Amida-kuji which shifted my life from one line to another. When I was young, I wanted to be a Mathematics teacher. However, I knew my capability was inferior to my friends when I was an undergraduate. Changing my mind, I joined an electronic company in 1978. Although I wanted to be an engineer in the company, I was assigned to a research laboratory against my will. Similarly, my career continuously shifted from one line to another. Some of the lines were drawn by me with my strong intention and my capability. Others were drawn against my will by my advisers, bosses, seniors and so on. Some were lucky and others were unlucky for me. Don’t you have the same experience?

I am not sure if you joined OPU with your will or against your will. I am not sure if your campus life including study and extra-curricular activities were with your will or against your will. But I am sure there were visible changes in your life while you were in OPU. I would like to encourage you to compare your OPU life to Amida-kuji. I believe you will find a lot of horizontal lines which shifted your old line to a new line.

Let us regard our life as drawing Amida-kuji. I encourage you to add a horizontal line to your life in the future if you find a new goal. To do this, please continue to study even if you are a university graduate. I also encourage you to add a horizontal line to the life of others. To do this, please continue to improve your capability. You should be a positive influencer for them.

Once we add a line to “辛” which means “hardships”, it becomes “幸” which means “happiness”. I will be happy if you remember my message whenever you encounter hardships or draw any lottery.

Finally, if you have time, please feel free to come back to the OPU campus in the future. The OPU Sakura Festival in April and OPU University Festivals in May and November always welcome you. Thank you for your kind attention. Once again, congratulations on your graduation.

March 24, 2019
Hiroshi TSUJI, president of OPU

NB: Full address is posted on the Japanese official OPU website.

President’s Commencement Address (Japanese language)