Spring 2025 Graduation Ceremonies held on March 25, 26
Fri, Apr 4, 2025-
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On Tuesday, March 25 and Wednesday, March 26, 2025, the graduation ceremonies for undergraduate students, graduate students and students from the Art and Architecture School were held at the Waseda Arena on Toyama Campus.
For the academic year 2024, a total of 7,947 undergraduate students, 62 from the Art and Architecture School, 1,964 master’s degree students, 510 professional master’s degree students, and 197 doctoral degree students graduated from Waseda. This made for a grand total of 10,680 students who embarked from Waseda to begin a new chapter of their lives.
In consideration of the health and safety of all students and their family members, only graduating students were invited to the ceremonies. The ceremonies were split into multiple sessions over two days to disperse the number of participants per session. This year, there were live broadcast viewing areas for guardians of students set up on Waseda Campus.
Additionally, the Azusa Ono Memorial Award ceremony was held to congratulate students and groups with outstanding achievements in the areas of Academics and Sports. There were 8 Academic awards, 1 Art award, 2 Special awards and 24 Sports awards given out this year.
The President of Waseda University, Aiji Tanaka, addressed the graduating students at the ceremony.
President’s Address (extract)
On behalf of Waseda University, it is my great pleasure to congratulate you upon your graduation. We also extend congratulations to your family, relatives, and friends. I am sure that this is a moment you have been waiting for while studying here at Waseda.
We considered inviting family members in addition to graduating students to this graduation, but we were concerned that it would be dangerously congested on the road in front of Waseda Arena. Consequently, we have been inviting only the actual graduating students to this Arena for the last several years. We hope you will understand our decision.
At the same time, we would like you to know that we are all proud of you, who have completed your study at Waseda, accomplished your own goals, and are graduating today.
You are graduating from Waseda University today in a manner that is truly gratifying. Your graduation signifies that your efforts to study at Waseda became fruitful. Please be confident of what you have learned at Waseda, and be a pioneer, forging your own way forward in your life in society at large or in graduate school.
You are now entering a world that you have never experienced before. I imagine that at present you have positive expectations regarding your future, and at the same time you might anticipate some anxiety. However, this is quite natural. You will be fine as long as you are honest about yourself and faithfully try to design your own life.
Since the time I became the president of Waseda University six and a half years ago, I have been advocating the fostering of “intellectual resilience” and “flexible sensitivity.”
What, then, does “intellectual resilience” mean? The tough-mindedness that impels you to think through a problem to arrive at your own solution is what I call “intellectual resilience.”
I trust that you have learned how to use your own brain and think thoroughly about unknown problems. Accordingly you have fostered “intellectual resilience” at Waseda. That is because the development of such an aptitude is Waseda’s tradition and an important characteristic of the student culture of Waseda.
I sincerely hope that you will cherish the importance of “intellectual resilience,” “flexible sensitivity,” and “responsive reasoning,” and utilize these ideals in your future life. If you keep these ideal goals in your mind and work in your own society or the world at large, then the world will be more peaceful and fair. These ideal goals are in fact based on the ideals of the founder of Waseda University.
Please have confidence in what you have learned at Waseda, because you have survived the difficult academic environment brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. You can go out into the world and live well with this confidence.
Even after you graduate, please come visit your alma mater. We are looking forward to welcoming back you, who will be evermore brilliantly shining, back to an evermore brilliantly shining Waseda.
Congratulations on your graduation!
For the full speech in English, click here.
The Executive Chairman of the Waseda University Alumni Association (WUAA), Akira Mandai, delivered a congratulory message to encourage and welcome the soon-to-be alumni of Waseda.
Congratulatory Speech (extract)
First of all, I would like to express my heartiest congratulations to you upon your graduation today, as well as to the families who have supported you during your time at Waseda University!
In April 2021, when many of you entered Waseda University, society was still reeling from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Although social activities gradually recovered after that, you no doubt experienced many difficulties in continuing your studies, extracurricular activities, and other student life. Those experiences, I imagine, add to the pleasure of graduation. Your hearts must be filled with joy and pride in your accomplishments. For this reason, I too am filled with a particularly strong desire to offer you my heartfelt congratulations and deliver this message on behalf of the WUAA.
All of you, without exception, will become alumni of Waseda University and registered members of the WUAA upon graduation. I’d like to take this opportunity to explain to you a little about our association. At Waseda University, we call our graduates “koyu,” and the WUAA, also referred to as “Koyukai,” is an alumni organization composed of graduates of this university.
Our 1,400 alumni association chapters, known as “Tomonkai,” are active throughout the world, organized by categories such as regions in Japan, graduation years, professions, and overseas countries. The power of these 690,000 alumni is the pride of Waseda. Active in a wide range of fields in Japan and around the world, our alumni contribute to society not only as businesspeople and executives, but also as prime ministers, community organizers, politicians, government officials, lawyers, judicial officers, athletes, writers, artists, doctors, and media personalities. This diversity of alumni is the vitality and pride of Waseda.
As you go on to the next stages in your lives, feel free to make full use of the rich human resources and networks that WUAA has to offer. Your fellow alumni will always give you a warm welcome at Tomonkai chapters not only throughout Japan but also in various regions of the world, industries, and graduation cohorts. Contact information on Tomonkai chapters is available on the WUAA website. Please contact us and join us in our activities. And going forward, we also ask for your warm guidance as a strong support group for current Waseda students.
Along the paths that you are about to take, there will not only be enjoyable and happy times. You are also likely to face great hardships that may bring pain and sorrow. However, by further refining the intellectual resilience, flexible sensibility, and responsive reasoning you have acquired at this university, and by embracing the pride of having studied at Waseda and your altruistic spirit, I hope you will become someone who can make a major contribution to the world.
In closing, I will say that the WUAA’s slogan is “To the world together, toward the future together.” Graduates of Waseda, spread your wings and soar high, into the world and into the future!
I sincerely look forward to seeing you again on a Homecoming Day when you will be invited to the university five years after graduation.
For the full speech in English, click here.
Graduation Album
Waseda Live
*The live-broadcast from the day of the ceremonies can be watched from the URLs below.
March 25, 2025 (Tue)
1st Session
School of Political Science and Economics; School of Law; School of Social Sciences
Graduate School of Political Science; Graduate School of Economics; Graduate School of Law; Waseda Law School; Graduate School of Social Sciences
2nd Session
School of Culture, Media and Society; School of Humanities and Social Sciences; School of Commerce
Graduate School of Letters, Arts and Sciences; Graduate School of Commerce; Graduate School of Accountancy; Graduate School of Business and Finance
March 26, 2025 (Wed)
3rd Session
School of Education; School of Human Sciences (including the Online Degree Program); School of Sport Sciences; School of International Liberal Studies
Graduate School of Education; Graduate School of Human Sciences; Graduate School of Sport Sciences; Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies; Graduate School of Japanese Applied Linguistics; Graduate School of International Culture and Communication Studies
4th Session
School of Fundamental Science and Engineering; School of Creative Science and Engineering; School of Advanced Science and Engineering; Art and Architecture School
Graduate School of Fundamental Science and Engineering; Graduate School of Creative Science and Engineering; Graduate School of Advanced Science and Engineering; Graduate School of Environment and Energy Engineering; Graduate School of Information, Production and Systems
