February 28 (Saturday)
The 80th anniversary of the American football team "Tomahawks" was held.
This club has the power to become the best in Japan. We have high expectations for them!
February 26 (Thursday)
We had a visit from the Japanese Red Cross Society. (a subsidiary of Hosei University) because the donations for the disaster relief activities by Hosei Water, the original mineral water in cooperation with H-U Corporation (a subsidiary of Hosei University), exceeded 1 million yen in total since 2011.
I personally, as well as many others, am a regular donor to the Japanese Red Cross Society. In addition, the number of donors who make donations in the event of a disaster is probably even larger. The Japanese Red Cross Society operates on regular donations, and the donations are given directly to the government of the disaster area. One of the main reasons why donations at the time of the Great East Japan Earthquake were not easily utilized was that the administration was unable to move quickly due to the disaster.
Donations are an important cultural practice with a long history. In Japan, there were always "ko" or "yui" organizations in villages, where people worked together to put on roofs, rebuild dilapidated houses together, fix roads, collect donations in times of disaster, and raise orphans. Sometimes the funds came from the communal rice fields, and sometimes from the timber from the community land. In the town, wealthy merchants (today's big companies) carried out public works such as excavating canals and building bridges.
Donations and volunteers functioned before government organizations. Government and administration alone still cannot make a society work. In addition to the Red Cross, my other donation targets include UNICEF, Amnesty (a human rights organization), Doctors Without Borders, Greenpeace (an international environmental organization), and the Citizens Commission on Atomic Energy.
And many alumni have donated to various activities at Hosei University.
With volunteer activities and donations, society can be changed considerably.
On this day, we also held a "Self-Evaluation Roundtable Meeting," where 15 faculties and the Center for Liberal Arts presented their advanced efforts. These are called University Assessment Activities. Each year, faculties implement various reforms for the benefit of students. Not only self-assessments, but also third-party inspections are conducted.
For this purpose, student course evaluation questionnaires also play an important role. Why is the collection rate so low? Your voices will change the university. That is what this system is for. Please think of it as an exercise in voting and public commenting in society. If the response rate is high, the university will certainly change.
Feb. 22 (Sun.)
A meeting of the Hosei University Mass Communication Orange Society was held. As we all know, many of our graduates are working as announcers, career-track employees, reporters, and editors for NHK and other major key stations, as well as for newspaper companies, advertising agencies, and publishing houses.
First, we offered a silent prayer for the repose of the soul of journalist Kenji Goto.
Some of you may not have heard of this meeting yet. Please join the association and make use of the alumni network in your work.
February 9 (Mon), 11 (Wed)
February is the month of entrance exams. There are entrance examinations every day, and decisions and announcements of successful applicants are made. The President makes himself available on the day of the entrance examinations in case he is contacted.
On both of these days, I was at the Tama School building organizing books for my laboratory. My laboratory is in the Faculty of Social Sciences, but since I have rarely been able to visit since becoming President, I needed to devise a way to keep my books nearby.
I have been digitizing books one after another for the past year, but I am not finished yet. At the same time, we have to examine the books that are not being digitized and those that will be digitized in the near future. Like the library and the institute, the President personally is also struggling with archiving issues.
Preparing documents for the long-term visioning process is also a major task at this time.
February 3 (Tuesday)
Setsubun, or the day of Tsuina ceremonies. However, today is the 15th day of the 12th lunar month. Setsubun is the 30th day of the 12th lunar month, so it should not be today. It's a new calendar, so many things are strange, but it can't be helped.
At the invitation of Kanda Myojin, after the formal visit to the shrine and purification ceremony, we put on kamishimo (ceremonial samurai costume) and did mame-maki (bean-throwing ceremony). There was a huge crowd. Hosei University is located in an area that is a Ujiko (shrine) of Hie Shrine, so we celebrate Hie Shrine's festival with our neighbors. On the other hand, I personally was for a long time the president of the Myojin Juku (a lecture series sponsored by Kanda Myojin) at Kanda Myojin, so I still have various associations with the shrine. The Hie Shrine and Kanda Myojin festivals are known as the Tenka Matsuri, and the two shrines alternated in holding a large festival to protect Edo. Nihonbashi and Akihabara are also included in the Ujiko (shrine's area of worship), making it a popular shrine for the general public.
Kanda Myojin is a shrine dedicated to Taira no Masakado, a vassal of the Emperor. It can be said to be a symbol of the East against the Emperor of Kyoto. At the time of the Meiji Restoration, Masakado was removed as a deity and the name of the shrine was changed to Kanda Shrine. As an Edo scholar, I stubbornly call it Kanda Myojin. The shrine is now called Kanda Myojin again.
Tsuina is an event to drive out plague and disease. Later, it became an event to drive away various kinds of calamities, by likening them to demons. During the formal visit to the shrine, I was reminded of the harsh and cruel events of the recent past. We cannot change reality or other people by praying to the gods and Buddha, but we can look at ourselves through the act of prayer.
February 2 (Monday)
At noon, the President's Statement was posted on the website and disseminated to the press; NHK news site, Yomiuri, Nikkei, Mainichi, and other newspapers covered the President's Statement.
February 1 (Sunday)
Early in the morning, we received information about Kenji Goto. We decided to send out a message to the campus and the news media. I was praying for his safety, but if the information was true, I am very sorry. It was a tough day.