On April 2, Ritsumeikan University welcomed over 8,000 new undergraduate and graduate students and their family members to its matriculation ceremony held at Miyako Messe in Kyoto.

In his congratulatory message, President Mikio Yoshida said, “University is a place where you study together with your peers and professors. At Ritsumeikan, there are a lot of students from all over Japan and overseas with different cultural backgrounds. In this diverse environment, I expect all of you to be exposed to various cultures, languages and different perspectives and to cultivate a spirit of openness to others.”

Kassim Iddrisu (College of Business Administration) spoke on behalf of the new undergraduate students at Osaka Ibaraki Campus: “My ethnic background is Ghana and Japan. My dream is to change the working environment in African countries. If African countries are changed, the world can be changed, I believe. In the next four years, I will learn business administration from a global perspective and take on challenges as much as I can.”

A video of the ceremony will be posted on the Ritsumeikan Channel at a later date. Please take a look.