Message from the President

Teruo Fujii, President, the University of Tokyo

Human society now confronts many global issues, including the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and violent conflict. Discrimination and division are spreading throughout the world, and society increasingly suffers from inequality and stagnation.

The conditions and assumptions that we have taken for granted are changing drastically. As we strive to build a new society, we must remain aware of the purpose of our academic endeavors and have a comprehensive vision that stretches from the past into the future.

This attitude is the foundation of UTokyo Compass, the statement of the University of Tokyo’s guiding principles announced in September 2021. UTokyo Compass emphasizes the role of dialogue at the core of everything we do. As an institution dedicated to creating knowledge, the University of Tokyo is committed to linking our university with society and the world through dialogue, thus bringing together people with diverse backgrounds and values and building ties among diverse institutions to better serve the global public.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations have raised awareness of the importance of development that leaves no one behind. But the meaning of such development has not always been clear or widely shared.

Often development has been viewed as meaning economic growth and increased material wealth, something that could be achieved by procuring resources and disposing of waste without taking responsibility for the future. Such development is no longer feasible. We have reached the limits of what our planet can sustain, and nothing is left to be easily exploited. Fostering the knowledge needed to deal with that reality is now the mission of the University of Tokyo.