Over 8000 new students, accompanied by family and relatives, attended the four ceremonies, which took place across the day, with the first beginning at 9am and the last ending at 5:45pm.

Yoshida Mikio, president of Ritsumeikan University, gave a welcome speech in the first half of each ceremony in which he spoke of his desire for all new students to acquire “an awareness of the importance of multicultural coexistence, and the ability to solve issues at the local, national, and even the international level, as a member of our collective world.”

Student representatives then contributed formal speeches before proceedings took a more informal turn in the second half of the ceremony as the lectern was moved aside and the stage was set for a succession of lively and thoroughly uplifting welcoming performances by various members of the university’s clubs.