Congratulatory Message from President for the AY 2026 Entrance Ceremony
New students,
On behalf of Niigata University, I offer my heartfelt congratulations to all of you on your admission today. I would also like to express my sincere respect and gratitude to your families and to all those who have supported you along the way.
This year, we are honored to welcome a total of 3,285 new students to Niigata University: 2,415 to the undergraduate degree programs, 648 to the master’s degree programs, 153 to the doctoral degree programs, 21 to the postgraduate professional degree programs, and 48 to the special school nurse program.
Today, you stand at the entrance to a new chapter of your lives. Entering university is not simply a change in where you study. It is also the beginning of a new journey - one in which you choose your own path and begin to expand your possibilities. At university, you will be asked to think for yourselves and deepen your learning through your own efforts. That freedom is also a time of facing yourselves honestly. What kind of university life will each of you build? What kind of future will you imagine for yourselves? That journey begins here today.
We live in a time of great change. Technological innovation, including generative artificial intelligence, is rapidly transforming the foundations of society. The international order is becoming less stable, while global challenges such as climate change and demographic change continue to grow more complex. Assumptions once taken for granted are now being questioned one after another. The future can no longer be understood simply as an extension of the past. And for that very reason, the meaning of learning at a university has become more important than ever.
A university is not simply a place where completed knowledge is handed down, nor a place where ready-made answers are given. It is a place where questions are formed.
AI can now provide many answers. Yet truly valuable answers can come only from good questions. Questions often begin in moments of uncertainty - when we stop before something we do not yet understand. They grow out of the desire to know, to examine, and to understand more deeply. Meaningful questions arise when we observe society carefully, approach people and the world with respect and curiosity, and encounter forms of knowledge different from our own. A university is the place where such questions are nurtured.
Niigata University is a comprehensive university where many fields of knowledge come together - the humanities, the social sciences, the natural sciences, and the medical and dental sciences. Here, while studying your own chosen field, you will also meet people from different disciplines and encounter a wide range of values.
At times, those encounters may unsettle your assumptions. But that experience itself lies at the heart of university learning. To meet different ways of thinking, to engage in dialogue, and to think again in your own words - through that process, your thinking gains depth.
Goethe is widely known as one of Germany’s great literary figures. Yet his intellectual life was never limited to literature alone. He studied law, explored the natural sciences, and continued throughout his life to seek knowledge broadly. His example reminds us that learning is not something confined within a single field. It is also a way of widening one’s world.
Goethe also wrote: “Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.” University learning, too, is not complete simply because knowledge has been acquired. What you learn becomes real strength only when you deepen it within yourselves and connect it to action. A university is a place where you deepen your expertise, but it is also a place where you learn to bring that knowledge into the real world and expand your own possibilities through it.
The founding philosophy of Niigata University is Autonomy and Creativity. It means to govern oneself with discipline and to act according to one’s own principles, while also creating new value. Since its founding, this philosophy has been the foundation of education and research at our university.
In education, we also uphold the ideal of Cultivating True Strength. True strength means continuing to think in difficult circumstances, engaging in dialogue, and continuing to seek better choices. It is exactly this strength that society will need most in the years ahead.
At the same time, our mission to society is Connecting Knowledge, Shaping the Future. A university is not simply a place where knowledge is stored. It is also a place where knowledge from different fields is connected, where people connect with one another, where regions connect with the world, and where the fruits of knowledge are returned to society.
Society is not something given to us by someone else. It is something each of us must take part in, support, and continue to create.
Under the philosophy of Autonomy and Creativity, Niigata University seeks to foster people of true strength, people who can connect knowledge, and through that knowledge, help open the future of society. That is the vision that guides our education and research.
Niigata University is now taking on important new challenges.
We have been selected for J-PEAKS, a national initiative to strengthen Japan’s research universities, and we are advancing our research capabilities as a core regional research university. We have also been selected for FLAGs, a graduate education hub initiative aimed at fostering doctoral talent, and we are committed to nurturing highly skilled individuals who will lead the next generation. In addition, through programs such as the Regional Industry Creation Grant, we are working to connect the outcomes of research to the development of local communities and industry.
These are not simply large institutional projects. They are part of Niigata University’s effort to grow as a research university rooted in its region while contributing, through knowledge, to the future of Japan and the wider world.
Yet the true strength of a university is not created by buildings or systems alone. It is created by the aspirations and efforts of the people who gather within it. Each student who studies with independence, pursues inquiry, and faces society seriously helps shape the future of this university.
Many of you will now begin by learning the foundations of your chosen disciplines as undergraduate students. But the world of scholarship does not end there. Many students go on to graduate school in order to continue deeper inquiry and research. The society of the future will need people with more advanced knowledge and deeper powers of thought. I hope that you will continue your own intellectual journey with a long perspective, including the possibility of graduate study.
University life is one of the most special periods in a person’s life. It is a precious time when you can think for yourselves and challenge yourselves boldly. I hope you will not be afraid of failure, but will take on many kinds of challenges. Serious engagement with scholarship is, of course, important. But so too are your encounters with friends, your extracurricular activities, your connections with local communities, and the experiences through which you open your eyes to the wider world. Each of these will help you grow.
As you devote yourselves to your own fields of study, I also hope that you will learn across boundaries, meet many different people, and broaden your view of the world. Each of those experiences will nurture a steady strength within you. That strength may not always appear immediately in visible form. Yet at turning points in life, and in times of difficulty, it will become a reliable source of support.
And this university will be here to support the challenge and growth of each one of you.
From this day forward, I sincerely hope that your years at Niigata University will be filled with new encounters and discoveries.
To the families of our students, I once again express my respect and gratitude, and I ask that you continue to watch warmly over the journey that now begins for them.
In closing, let me once more offer my heartfelt congratulations to all of our new students on your admission to Niigata University.
Thank you, and congratulations.
April 3, 2026
SOMEYA Toshiyuki, M.D., Ph.D.
President, Niigata University
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