I gave a commencement speech at Tokyo Tech

I had the opportunity to give a commencement speech as a guest at my alma mater, Tokyo Institute of Technology (officially the degree conferral ceremony, held twice for undergraduate and graduate students). March 26, 2024.
Since Tokyo Tech will merge with Tokyo Medical and Dental University in October 2024 to become Institute of Science Tokyo, this was the final spring commencement ceremony as 'Tokyo Institute of Technology'.
I am grateful to President Masu for recommending me for such an important occasion, especially when there are as many truly impressive alumni as there are Avogadro's number.

I am glad I was able to provide a time for the graduating students and their parents that didn't make them sleepy. Furthermore, I would be happy if even one person felt inspired to try something new.

Commencement Speech

It is an honor to be present at the commencement ceremony of one of the country's leading universities.

First, let me introduce myself.
A little over 10 years ago, I graduated from Tokyo Tech with my bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical engineering.
I am currently the CEO of a venture, a startup company, that conducts space development and private rocket development.
The company, which started with just a few people 11 years ago, has now grown to a scale of 170 employees. We have also become the first private company in Japan to develop a rocket that reached outer space. This is the rocket we developed.
During my university days, I served as the chief designer for a human-powered aircraft club and started a club for launching rockets.
On the other hand, my academic grades were not good, and I did something as outrageous as quitting the major company I had secured a job offer from using a school recommendation on April 1st, the day of the entrance ceremony.
I am moved by how broad-minded this university is to allow someone like me to appear at this celebratory event.

I came here today wanting to talk about two things.
The first is 'Social change is crazy'.
The second is 'Be on the side that creates change'.

At a commencement speech, I suppose one is expected to say things like 'Your future is bright'.
Is the future really bright?

Japan's population is shrinking, the domestic labor force is decreasing, aging is creating major challenges, no one knows what will happen to pensions, gender equality is still far from being realized as far as I can see in this venue, while people shout about SDGs only trivial matters like paper straws progress, despite talk of measures against the declining birthrate no one touches the essential issues, competitive environments are intensifying both academically and socially, yet Japan's GDP is not growing, income inequality is widening, the entire society has been severely damaged by the pandemic, wars continue around the world, human relationships are becoming thin, social isolation is deepening, climate change is advancing, biodiversity is decreasing, jobs are being taken by AI,
while saying 'We aim to be the world's best science and technology university,' no one knows when it will become the world's best, and the university name, which already lacks name recognition, will become an even more unfamiliar name.
The uncle who would say 'An industrial university? You must have played too much in high school' will be gone, and the cousin from Shinshu University will also be gone.
That logo guy who didn't look like a swallow at all at first is retiring, and by next year, the president might even start hating prime numbers.

Thinking it was a broad-minded university, I may have said too much.

In a society full of these challenges, you are going out into society, have no choice but to go out, or are getting closer to going out into society.

The speed of change is also increasing.

We are in an era where society changes drastically in 10 or 20 years. It is even difficult to share values with people one generation older.
In the midst of this, you will be involved with society for the next 50 to 80 years.

Scientific progress is accelerating year by year thanks to technological evolution,
remote work became the norm before and after COVID, and it has only been about 15 years since the smartphone appeared. Harassment is decreasing year by year, environmental awareness has shifted to essential sustainability, finding purpose and meaning in life is emphasized, and work-life balance has been emphasized in the true sense for just over 10 years in my experience.
Amazon and Google came to Japan only about 20 years ago at most.
It has been 10 years since QR payments appeared, and less than 15 years since Bitcoin was created.
Trendy social media doesn't last even 10 years. Does anyone know mixi, which I wrote on diligently when I was a university student?
It has become common to have ChatGPT write reports, but that hasn't even been two years yet.
Popular job ranking lists change by half every 10 years.

Even 10 years ago, almost no one went to startup companies or started their own businesses, but I hear that a decent percentage are doing so now.

This is the amount of change in 10 or 20 years.

You will be exposed to major changes again and again in your future lives.

The second point is about being on the side that creates change.

I will share a personal episode.

I joined a private space development startup company 11 years ago as a new master's graduate at the time of its founding.
While I wanted to be involved in space development, I couldn't get a job at a space agency like JAXA during my job search, and I had already received an offer from another industry. It was a camera manufacturer, so it was truly a different industry.
During spring break after finishing my master's thesis, I went to help the predecessor organization of my current company, and there I met the founder, Horiemon.
He asked me, 'Do you want to build rockets, or do you want to build cameras?' I thought about what I really wanted to build, and feeling the growth potential of the space industry, I was convinced that this was the only time, both socially and personally.
That same day, I decided to join our current company, Interstellar Technologies. The timing was bad, or rather it was too close, and I committed a great breach of faith by quitting the manufacturer that had offered me a job on April 1st, the day of the entrance ceremony. I don't think my choice was wrong, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else at all. You will be incredibly scolded by HR. You will cause trouble for the company. You will be scolded a little bit by your university professors.

Private space development.
Now, there are challenges to launch private rockets from multiple locations in Japan, American rockets launch routinely, private companies conduct lunar exploration, astronauts go to space on private rockets, and private companies provide communication services using space. The entity photographing the Earth the most is a private company.
However, 10 years ago, it was different.

There was little thought that space development was something for the government to do, or that private companies would do it on their own.

Aside from the United States, it was constantly said in Japan that it was impossible for private companies to develop rockets on their own.
Admittedly, there were no laws in place for rocket launches, the development of financing methods for startups to raise money was lagging, and there was no track record, so it was understandable that people said that.

Despite that, we developed a completely new rocket, built a rocket launch site on completely vacant land in Hokkaido, failed over and over again, and finally succeeded in development.

Our company cannot yet be called a successful business; we are still halfway there. Even so,I am proud of us as a company that overturned what people said was 'impossible anyway' and created something new.

The Japanese government is now working to foster startups.Many people have realized the obvious fact that in order to grow, you have to do new things.

You can do new things even if you go to a large company. Sometimes large companies have more resources and can do more. On the other hand, there are also many various limitations.
It is startups that can break through that without constraints.
In the past, there was indeed a time when if you failed at starting a business, you would be left with debt and might hang yourself to pay it off with life insurance.
That is a thing of the past; the risk of starting a business is at most the loss of your initial investment. In this modern age with strong social security and labor shortages, you will not go hungry. You will not die.
It is a good era.

Science and engineering fields have the power to create new things even when people think it is 'impossible anyway'.
And being able to do that at a world-class level is the strength of Tokyo Tech graduates.
Tokyo Institute of Technology, the 'world's best comprehensive science and engineering university,' is a university to be proud of.

We live in an era with many challenges and rapid change.
Let us create change with our own hands.

Congratulations to you all today.

Reference

The cover image is of a Baymax-like robot, created by ChatGPT, speaking at a graduation ceremony.