To all of you receiving degrees from Chuo University, as long as your devotion to your studies and hard efforts come to an end, I would like to congratulate you on your graduation. Through your various studies and activities at Chuo, you have gained a range of knowledge and skills, and by developing them into your intellect, you are about to take a giant leap and demonstrate that intellect to society.

In your lives you will reach several major turning points such as entering university, graduation, employment, marriage and more, and each one of them can be compared to crossing the dateline. Generally, when you cross the dateline on a trip, it is essential that you manage to adjust your lifestyle to match the time difference, and also, it is required that you adapt to a different language, phrases, values and ways of living, but more than anything, I think you know that self-discipline is important. I ask everyone who will cross over the March 31 dateline, who will graduate from university and carry on to higher education or take a job, to be conscious of its significance. Until now, your learning environment has been provided, and there have probably been many areas where you needed only to adapt to what has been provided, but upon finishing university, you will have to, on your own, acquire a posture to create an environment to train yourself, and find and establish an even more responsible lifestyle. I believe that a big time difference lies ahead.

Also, you have all sat various examinations these last several years. By only having the knowledge and skills you have worked hard for to gain evaluated in examinations, knowledge and skills will end there. When knowledge and skills are organized and generalized, you realize in which area you can utilize them. That is when the knowledge and skills are turned into intellect. Furthermore, while you have been at university, you all encountered many people, and by changing knowledge into intellect in the process of establishing yourself, I think you were able to realize that it wasn't only for yourselves, but also for other people and for the public.

Japanese society, which holds expectations for your efforts, is experiencing a rapid change in its make-up through remarkable developments in globalization, through the declining birthrate and ageing population, and the whole world is facing a time to create a sustainable society in which we need to think about how to manage finite resources and protect the global environment. Because we live in this era, the intellect you all have acquired while at Chuo University doesn't belong to individuals only; I want you to be aware that there is a public nature to it and to demonstrate so in various areas of society. It can be said that that in itself is expected of you, all who have studied at Chuo University, under our founding spirit of "fostering the ability to apply knowledge to practice."

You will all set sail on different routes, but your alma mater, Chuo University, will continue to be your home port from which you voyage, and I await your return home at various opportunities. I want all graduates to be proud of being a graduate of Chuo University, and I hope you sail strongly on to your future voyage of life. Congratulations on your graduation. Treasure the personal connections you have made during this time, and those you will make in the future, and please be lively and well. I would like to conclude this congratulatory message in prayer for your health and active involvement in the future.