Vol.008 Maintaining the Autonomy and Freedom of the Faculty of Academia -Tetsu Nakamura, President for 15 years

Akira Nakamura, who became President of Hosei University at the height of the university conflict, maintained a basic stance of dialogue with students and led the university to "normalize" the situation through a variety of reforms.

Nakamura was born in Tokyo in 1912 and studied law at the Imperial University of Tokyo (now the University of Tokyo). After the war ended, he became a professor in the Faculty of Law at the University, saying that he felt "closer to Hosei University, which had been devastated by the war as a place of free learning and the arts.

When the educational system and facilities could no longer keep pace with the expansion of the student population, some students, distrustful of postwar democracy, began to advocate the "dismantling of the university" and resorted to radical tactics such as occupying and blockading the university, using violence against faculty members, and obstructing examinations. In response to the "internal strife," an incident in which the university's autonomy was violated through the use of violence, the university was forced to call for the dispatch of riot police and to adopt a lockout* posture.

In the midst of this turmoil, Nakamura, who became President in May 1968 at the age of 56, emphasized dialogue with students in order to protect the freedom and autonomy of the university. This is symbolized by the President's press conferences and briefings (so-called "mass group discussions"), which were held at least eight times in Room 511 of the 55th Building and other locations. Nakamura is said to have purified himself with water before each meeting, and while accepting what he considered to be reasonable requests, he maintained the university's position as a school of learning and took a firm stance against the "dismantling theory" of the students.