2025 Spring Entrance Ceremonies

The 2025 Science Tokyo Spring Entrance Ceremonies were held on April 2, 2025, at Ookayama Campus. This was the first spring cohort of students joining the Institute since its establishment. New bachelor's program students were welcomed into the community in the morning, while master's and doctoral program students were celebrated in the afternoon.

This April, 1,471 bachelor's program students, 1,721 master's program students, 32 professional master's program students, and 606 doctoral program students were admitted to the Institute. Of these students, 467 joined Science Tokyo from abroad.

Joining the students and their loved ones at the ceremonies were President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Naoto Ohtake, President and Chief Academic Officer (CAO) Yujiro Tanaka, other Members of the Board, and deans and directors. Special guests included Junko Mokuno (Class of 1983, Information Science, School of Science, Tokyo Institute of Technology), vice president of Trail Inc., at the morning ceremony and Noboru Mizushima (Class of 1995, Graduate School of Medicine, Tokyo Medical and Dental University), a professor at the University of Tokyo, at the afternoon ceremony.

At both events, Tanaka kicked things off with a speech to Science Tokyo’s new students. He encouraged his audience to embrace free thinking rather than fear failure, and gave various examples of world-changing innovations that emerged at the intersection of different fields during the time of Science Tokyo’s predecessor universities.

Next, Ohtake offered his congratulations to the Institute’s new students. “With an open and global perspective, Science Tokyo aims to redefine science to include technology, medicine, and social systems. I also invite you, the founding students of the Institute, to adopt a broader, more inclusive approach — a pan-science approach — in your studies and research,” he said.

Following this, special guest Mokuno offered her warm words of encouragement to the new bachelor’s program students in the morning. She noted that, in this rapidly changing world, jobs, dreams, and goals may very well disappear, but if you live in the present, trust your instincts, and make your own choices, you will never lose sight of yourself. Mokuno also highlighted the importance of strong friendships.

In the afternoon, Mizushima shared his thoughts with the new master’s and doctoral program students. He encouraged them to look as far as possible into the future, as well as at fields other than one’s own, before taking a firm step forward. He also urged his audience to share the joys of research with others, no matter how fragmented one’s field might feel.

After the introduction of the Members of the Board, deans and directors, and special guests, a student representative spoke on behalf of their cohort at each ceremony. In the morning, Kazuyuki Amatatsu from the School of Medicine within the Faculty of Medicine delivered a message in front of other bachelor's program students. In the afternoon, Yuta Asakura from the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the School of Science shared his words with fellow master's and doctoral students. Both students pledged to pursue Science Tokyo’s mission of “advancing science and wellbeing to create value for and with society.”

Congratulations to all the new students of the Institute, and welcome to the Science Tokyo community.

• Transcript of speech by President and CAO Tanaka
• Transcript of speech by President and CEO Ohtake