Speech

Dear Fellows,

It gives me great pleasure to stand here today to congratulate the new Sasakawa Fellows on their graduation.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Professor Max Mejia and the entire WMU faculty for their excellent education. I also extend my gratitude to the residence supervisor for overseeing the fellows as they lived together under the same roof, and to the home nations and organizations for sending the fellows to WMU. And above all, I would like to thank and congratulate the families for their continued support and encouragement of our fellows.

A university’s mission goes beyond merely awarding degrees. Rather, the purpose of a university is to cultivate future professionals who can make a positive impact on society. During your time at WMU, you have connected with professors and peers, forged lasting experiences, and worked diligently toward your goals.

Everyone gathered here in this auditorium looks very confident as proud WMU graduates and Sasakawa Fellows. Now, we look forward to seeing you represent your home countries and be recognized on the global stage.

Of course, we will be happy to help you continue to take on challenges after graduation. Today, our network includes over 1,800 Fellows from more than 150 countries. However, we do not measure success by size, nor do we support Fellows just to see them graduate.

Graduation is just a milestone. The knowledge and experiences gained at WMU serve as the foundation for each of you to represent your home countries and take an active role in the international community. The success of human capacity development depends on how you apply this foundation.

And you already have the tools for success. The Nippon Foundation’s Alumni Network, to which you will now belong. There is a limit to what can be solved by the efforts of one country, one institution and one individual. In order to pass the oceans on to future generations, we need to work across disciplines, professions, and borders.

Another resource is the WMU-Sasakawa Global Ocean Institute, which fosters cross-disciplinary collaboration. The Global Ocean Institute, which serves as an international hub connecting industry, government, and academia, embodies the global trend of "from maritime affairs to the ocean."

As you embark on your next challenges, we encourage you to make full use of these resources. This includes pursuing further research at the Global Ocean Institute and collaborating not only with Sasakawa Fellows but also with our alumni from different programs. In the future, regardless of the path you choose, we will continue to support you through the Nippon Foundation Alumni Network.

Congratulations once again, and welcome to the Friends of WMU.


Below additional speech was given in Japanese and interpreted consecutively.

So, in fact I have 3 questions I 'd like to put to you, and the first question I want to put to you is when do people feel like they want to go see the sea, stroll along the beach? When is it that people feel the urge to go to ocean? Please think about how you would refer to this question.
In films, novels or in mangas, when does the ocean appear? When people are in love, and they bloom in youth, when they suffer heartache in love, feel despair or feel depressed, particularly? And the ocean does seem to appear a lot in these situations. The ocean and human emotions are said to be linked, especially when people are feeling emotional or sentimental. Why is this? I just want to quote Harman Melville, the marine explorer and author of “Moby-Dick “, he said following: the ocean is the mirror reflects the true human heart. Harman Melville perhaps says this, because the ocean can change its appearance according to the emotions felt at that time. So, there could be crushing waves, calm and still waters, the ocean could be colored by the sunset or sundown hues, waves lying back and forth. Ocean could express our different emotions. Perhaps many people feel like the ocean provides the answers that they are seeking at the time. So, in summary, humans, oceans are very much like a mirror. This certainly is one answer.
 
I don’t know if you recall, but this is the exact question I put to you in fact last year. And because I wanted to really all of you to try and give your thoughts on this question, I actually said there’s actually no answer to this question. But of course, there are in fact answers, in fact these are infinite, they are infinite possible numbers of answers, as many different answers as possible. I have come up with one possible answer of course just now which I thought was convincing.
 
Now related to the second question. I’m sure that there’s an expression that many of you come across, particularly around this time of the year. When you are starting new chapter in your life, that you are doing now, making new start, taking on a new challenge, you often describe these processes as “leaving port”, “setting sail”, “setting sails to passengers new”, for example.
A person’s life is often likened to a sea journey or a sea voyage. So, when starting a new chapter, or taking on a new challenge, why do we use the expressions, “leaving port” or “setting sail”? Do you know the answer? Perhaps it is very much so when people launching themselves into the big wide oceans. I think it’s interesting and worthwhile pointing out that in this context, the image used is that of the ocean and ship, not sky and airplane. After all, I don’t think you’d talk about taking off or lifting off a new life. Not often, I’m sure, and there’s no answer for this one. Maybe I will take this up again next year.
 
However, this does lead me to my second question. And the second question that I want to put to you is, why do people liken their life to the sea or to the ocean? Vincent Van Gogh, the famous painter, has said the following. So, I'm going to quote Van Gogh. “The heart of man is very much like the sea. It has its storms, it has its tides, and in its depth, it has its pearls too.” Beautiful lines, aren’t they? However, given that we live in the age where we are, we show little or no interest in the sea and have disconnected in the ocean, perhaps these images will sadly not resonate much anymore.
 
As I mentioned earlier, the connection between us, humans and ocean is not simply linked, limited to the field of natural science and social sciences. And simply gathering the evidence and gathering data alone will not bring humans and the ocean closer together, at least I suspect. The key here is to create a narrative. A narrative, a story about the ties between us humans and the ocean. And whilst numbers and factual data may serve as ingredients to weave this narrative, they then do not create a narrative that we need. In fact, earlier I asked you about human feelings and emotions and the link with the ocean. And in fact, humans and the ocean can be protected in a myriad of numbers of ways. These connections are numerous, and the ties between us and the ocean are deeply engraved in our hearts. And I say it's perhaps engraved in our hearts and it's part of our DNA because I've qualified this statement as the reason, I do this is because we humans are not fully cognizant of this tie between us and the ocean, nor are we always aware of its connection.
For those of you here, I don't want you to see the ocean simply as your job or your place of work. I'd like you to have a more emotional connection to the ocean and approach it with a kind of curiosity and take a more philosophical angle keep this in a corner of your mind. If you approach things in a different way, it can give rise to new ideas and innovations.
On a completely different note, I actually hosted FM radio programme that is broadcasted in a metropolitan area, mainly around Tokyo. I invite guests each week and speak about a theme related to the ocean, and during this radio broadcast I touch upon complex ocean related issues in a cool and sophisticated manner to a young audience. So at least I'd like to think that would be done in a cool and sophisticated manner. So, I've already hosted this programme about 30 times and last week the theme that I chose was the intersex change of fish. It's an extremely interesting topic, so I'd like to share the contents of this broadcast with you.
 
And this actually leads to the third question I wanted to put to you. It's actually a simple knowledge quiz. Do you know how many species of fish can change their gender? Some of you are perhaps saying, how on earth would I know? And perhaps I'm suspecting some of you may not have even been aware that some of you can actually do this. I'm sure you are familiar with the Disney film Finding Nemo. The clownfish that serves as the model for the character in the film. And this clownfish is in fact one such type of fish that can carry out any sex change. They travel in schools and the largest male in that Shoal will turn into a female. And having changed its gender into a female, it mates with the second largest male. Did you know eels can also change their gender? And to answer the question that I just put to you, it said that there were around 60 or so different types of fish that can undergo intersex change. However, having said that, we don't know how many numbers of fish species there are on this planet. We are not aware of the mechanism by which this intersex change can occur, nor do we know how frequently this actually happens.
 
You might know that in Japan, from the waters, there is a type of fish called the Okinawa rubble goby. And it seems that this Okinawa rubble gobi has the ability to become both male and female. So, when two good-looking fish pass, they are often at a complete loss as to which gender they should become to court. So, this must be quite an interesting experience with nothing else.
 
But there are more serious issues related to the sex change issue that I just approached. Did you know that already more than 80% of sardines have had become males because of the sea water temperatures. And actually, this is an occurrence which is also seen amongst flounder fish. So, with rising sea temperatures, many fish species in fact will become male, distorting the gender ratio balance, making reproduction more challenging of course. Fewer fish are born and those species that feed on them also decline their numbers as a result. So global warming is causing a serious impact, even affecting the gender of fish.
 
Although not a fish as such, sea turtles are also affected. The sea turtle's gender is determined by the temperature of the sand on which the eggs are laid. If the temperature is above 29 .5 degrees, the turtles that hatch will be female. If lower than 29 .5 degrees, the hatchlings will be male. And apparently at present, maybe all the sea turtles that hatch are females. In human society also, we have seen diversity in terms of gender. And having heard that some creatures can undergo intersex change, the natural question that follows is, well, then what about humans? And I actually put this question to one of the guests on my radio show. So the question I put to my guest was that whether we as humans might, over 10 ,000 years or so, over the course of evolution, also be able to change our gender freely, like fish kin may do. And the professor answered by saying that yes, the possibility is actually there. If this is the case, those who suffer from a mismatch between what they feel is in their hearts and their actual gender might be released from their dilemma. And I think that this should cause considerable confusion for those with fixed perceptions about gender.
 
So, I asked several questions to you and what I can say after all of this is that humanity does not know or is not aware about the ocean, and also about the ties between us humans and the oceans. And there is an actual expression that describes the state. I touched upon it last year also. The expression is ocean blindness. It's a state that is characterized by ignorance, indifference and disregard for the ocean. So, regarding ocean blindness, I wanted to share with you my interpretation of what this is and convey to you what I felt was important, what you should be aware of. I also wanted to take a little bit of time to speak about unmanned vessels in human anxiety. The emotional aspects of this explore why we feel such anxiety.
Sadly, I'm not going to be able to do this, I'm going to have to stop here, because I'm very aware of Uchida-san (Naito) and Kudo-san is looking at me. And I'm also keenly aware that I stand between you and the wonderful dinner that I don't want to take away your dinner time.
So, as for what I have left unsaid today, we can either kick this up next year or publish it in
The Friends of WMU Newsletter mentioned earlier. Perhaps we can take time when you come to Japan and continue this conversation. Or perhaps the WMU President, in his wisdom, may decide to hold a special lecture. But in any case, I'm sure that someone very high up and important can decide how it continues.
 
So dear fellows, the ocean is full of unknowns. Please consider these unknowns as the entry gate, if you will, to the wider world and the vast ocean that you will sail out into. 
I wish you a safe and successful passage on your new sea voyage.
 
So, I will end, but one last question if I may. The question is, if you could be reborn or change your gender, which would you choose? Male, female, man, woman?
You don't need to answer here now.
But as for myself, I would actually vote for both, like the Okinawa rubble goby.

Thank you.