Messages from the Chairman and the President

Message from the Chairman

It is a prerogative of youth to dare to dream, and the bigger the dream, the more fulfilling the journey of its pursuit. The significance of a higher education institution’s existence is to transform the destiny of each student that attends it. At Nippon Sport Science University (NSSU) in particular, the apparatus that transforms each student’s dream into a reality and the instructors that allow for such fate transformation process abound. 
Each year, a number of NSSU students and alumni are dispatched to various developing countries around the world through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) as instructors of physical education, sports, etc. While NSSU’s globalization initiatives may not be known to many, no other university in Japan sends more people overseas on such assignments than NSSU. So if you have a dream of your own, it might be a good first step to pursue it by becoming a global citizen through this route. 
Yoshida Shoin once famously said the following: “One without a dream has no ideal. One without an ideal has no plan. One without a plan takes no action. One that takes no action does not succeed in life. Therefore, one without a dream is unable to lead a successful life.” If you continuously press forward in pursuit of your dream, the journey will fulfill your life. And to go on such a journey, you should leverage the physical activity that is your specialty.
As NSSU had repented its pre-war existence as a military-supporting school, it would transform itself in the post-war era and become a university that is committed to bringing about peace. So I want us the entire university community to graduate to the next level and become a collective of world peace advocates that can see the big picture and don’t get lost in the details. There is no dream bigger than building world peace. NSSU is seeking students that aspire to thrive on the world stage, as the Olympic Games are also festivities held in celebration of peace. 
An upstanding university must offer customized experiences and information that are stimulating to its students, along with a reliable compass and solid educational programs with which they can navigate through life. As its 130th anniversary approaches, NSSU has a large number of alumni that have achieved their full potential and excelled in their respective fields, supported by the institution’s great history and traditions. As its alumni have made their marks in society in good faith, NSSU has been able to improve its reputation and win the trust of society. One of NSSU’s distinctive features is the wide distribution of alumni across Japan although it’s not a large institution. If you see a school anywhere in this country, chances are there is usually an NSSU alum teaching there in high spirits. That is one formidable aspect of NSSU.
Indeed, our alumni are making their presence felt in such diverse fields, for example, as vice president of a leading semiconductor manufacturer in the U.S., president of a major food distribution chain in Japan, local councilors and heads of municipalities across the country, to name just a few. Education that respects individual uniqueness develops attractive talents. NSSU is committed to training its students to embrace their unique characters such that once they graduate into the world, they are able to make contributions with an ever-present sense of self-sacrifice under any circumstances. If one possesses physical fitness, it also has energetic mind. So it’s up to the skill of the university faculty to steer them in the right direction. 
NSSU is not an institution whose sole purpose is to train and develop athletes. Rather, NSSU is a place where its students can test the boundaries of their physical and technical abilities, while cultivating mental fortitude and curiosity. In other words, this is a higher education institution that allows the students to develop their individuality while obtaining general education that prove to be useful when they become working professionals, and aids them to become independent and upstanding citizens. NSSU is also a rare breed of university whose alumni become instructors at all types and levels of educational institutions, ranging from nursery school teachers to university faculty members. While Japan is known for its stringent qualification- and license-based social system, NSSU’s unique advantage will always remain eminent throughout all time.
NSSU is the oldest sport science university in Asia, and the largest of its kind in the world. Positioned as a comprehensive university in all cultural and scientific disciplines associated with the human body, NSSU is formulating wide-ranging plans to continue along its path of growth. If you decide to apply and get admitted to NSSU, I guarantee you will feel the great joy of attending and studying at this amazing institution of learning with a sense of pride.

Profile
Matriculated at Nippon Sport Science University in 1965. Won All Japan Student Wrestling Championship, U.S. Wrestling Championship, etc. Attended Eastern Michigan University on study abroad. Obtained a degree from the Doctoral Program at the Graduate School of Literature and Social Sciences, Nihon University. Taught as Instructor at Kabul University, Afghanistan and as Professor at Senshu University. Elected as Member of the House of Representatives for the first time in 1996. Served as Parliamentary Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs and Senior Vice Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Chairman of the Board at NSSU since 2011. Ph.D. (Sports Science). Honorary Member of the Japan Society of Physical Education, Health and Sport Sciences. Recipient of the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star. Authored many books including Kodai Shūkyō to Supōtsu Bunka (Ancient Religions and Sports Culture).

Message from the President　

Striving to be a comprehensive university in all cultural and scientific disciplines associated with the human body

NSSU is a university with a rich tradition that will soon be celebrating its 130th anniversary. Today, there are a total of five academic faculties conducting educational and research activities at NSSU, including the Faculty of Sport Science that has been NSSU’s longest-standing division since the post-war era, the School of Childhood Sport Education which was established in 2013, the Faculty of Medical Science which was founded in 2014, the Faculty of Sport Culture which was created in 2017, and the Faculty of Sport Management which is the latest addition since 2018.
The aforementioned faculties have been set up to adapt to the changing social conditions, so that NSSU can offer meaningful learning experiences and give back to society by leveraging its updated operations. While NSSU currently consists of these five academic faculties, they do not cover completely different disciplines such as economics, law, literature, or engineering. All academic disciplines taught at NSSU are specifically related to physical education and sport, or involve other topics that are more broadly associated with the human body. However, upon closer examination, you might be surprised to discover that there are actually more diverse academic fields within these faculties.
For example, in the cases of the Faculty of Sport Science, the School of Childhood Sport Education, and the Faculty of Medical Science, the students can pursue studies on the provision of guidance, support, and care to people across their entire lifespans through the stages of infants, toddlers, schoolchildren, adolescents, adults, and elders, and on how to design healthy lifestyles that are optimal for them. Meanwhile, the Faculty of Sport Culture and the Faculty of Sport Management allow the students to explore how society can be improved in terms of activity and liveliness with focus on the roles that physical education and sport play, in local communities and through global social networks. While there are overlapping areas between these faculties, each operates from its specific vantage point and has its unique specialties. While continuously improving each of these faculties’ distinct features, NSSU will strive to be a comprehensive university in all cultural and scientific disciplines associated with the human body.
To achieve this goal, NSSU management needs to envision the future state of society 20 years and 30 years down the line, contemplate the optimal way in which our institution may exist then to cater to the needs of society, and explore how best to transform NSSU in that direction over time, whilst communicating with young instructors, researchers, and students who call NSSU home. 

Expertise in physical education and sports is valuable and has various applications in society.

Most of the applicants to NSSU aspire to become physical education teachers or athletes, which is certainly an excellent career path. However, if one has decided to go in this direction, my recommendation would be to explore the entire world of sport. The value and the significance of sport in society have significantly increased over the past two decades or so. As a result, the social roles that physical education and sport must play today are highly important.
For example, while Japan is confronted with the issues of the declining birth rate, population ageing, and increases in medical costs, improved maintenance of people’s health by way of physical activity guidance would result in their self-management of physical condition throughout their lifespans, which might possibly put a stop to the rising medical costs. In addition, Japan has been seeing increasing numbers of spouses-only households and single-person households, that are steadily replacing nuclear-family households consisting of parents and children in recent years. While it is incumbent upon us to come up with a different support structure for those newly emerging household types and their lifestyles, the key ingredients of it might be some kind of means by which to tie their health and communication activities together. In the process, new business opportunities might present themselves also.
If one observes how our society is going through such drastic transformation, it might come to the realization that pursuing studies in physical education and sport does not necessarily limit its career path to becoming a physical education teacher or an athlete. Therefore, even if you matriculate as a student at NSSU with an aspiration to become an instructor in physical education, I would urge you to keep your perspective broad, and your mind wide open, and get intellectually curious about a diverse range of subjects, for it would give you more options for your future endeavors and expand your possibilities for the rest of your life.
In terms of academic studies, current practices are quite different from the past. In bygone days, if you had knowledge no one else did on any given subject, that would have helped you earn a good grade. In this era of the internet, however, everyone has easy access to any types of information available online. Hence, what is more valued today is one’s ability to gather diverse information, analyze it, and utilize the findings in such a manner that is conducive to the advancement of society and academic studies. Therefore, students—especially those pursuing master’s degrees, etc.—are increasingly required to think on their own and communicate their specific ideas and opinions.
As one cannot make something out of nothing, it is essential for each student to build a fundamental base of knowledge at undergraduate level, no matter what career path it will take. As the knowledge that you acquire and retain is a source of information from which to generate novel ideas, I hope each student will build its own repository of knowledge while in school.

Communicate with people of diverse backgrounds to enrich student life.

As we continue to deal with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, many of you might have come to the stark realization of how important it is for humans to see and interact with each other in person. At NSSU, we have also been taking measures to mitigate close-contact situations, by allowing only smaller numbers of students in course sessions, and switching to remote learning, which have reduced the opportunities for us to engage in casual conversations with each other face-to-face like we are used to doing. While the remote learning format has its advantage of convenience, I cannot help but look back on my personal experience during my school days of being influenced by diverse interactions with different people, which did not always take place in the classroom. Rather, I remember my experience of communicating with various instructors and friends outside the normal course of study had developed me into a more well-rounded individual that would be able to survive and thrive in society. 
Of course, given the current situation, we all need to be cautious about how to communicate with each other. Use of web-conferencing and other similar tools is a good way to exchange information. Extra time may also be allotted during online course sessions specifically so that the students can engage in casual conversations as they would normally do on campus. As possibilities are only limited by our imagination, I would like to involve our students in this process to come up with new measures.
No matter what measures we eventually implement to adapt to the ongoing situation, however, the actual practices, practicums, seminars, and experiments cannot be held remotely. Therefore, NSSU management is exploring ways through which to hold those sections of our courses in actual class settings. As there are a number of healthcare professionals as part of our faculty, we will listen to the opinions of those experts and implement effective infection prevention measures accordingly, while clarifying what are possible and what are not. Likewise, we will deploy basic measures that will allow us to gradually resume our normal activities concerning the study-abroad programs, academic exchange, and sporting activities that involve interaction with other parties outside NSSU. 
A university’s standing is not determined only by how difficult it is to get in, as measured by its T-score from the entrance examination, but what is more important is how fulfilling its student life can be for each individual. Therefore, NSSU management is intent on carrying out various reforms such that each enrolling student will be able to spend enjoyable and fulfilling four years at NSSU and feel glad about the choice it made to attend this institution. 
From my own personal experience, I feel NSSU is such a great and unique university. In particular, its faculty and staff members are all quite personable and generously make themselves available for consultation with students. No single member of our faculty is content to only exchange emails with its students and call it communication, because perhaps NSSU’s traditional approach to physical education and sport has always involved the provision of guidance one-on-one. So if you are a newly matriculating student at NSSU, I encourage you to actively meet and communicate with a diverse range of people, while taking all precautions to prevent the spread of viral infections, for it will truly enrich your student life at this institution.

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​Born in Hokkaido. Completed the Master’s Program in Health and Sport Science at the Graduate School of Health and Sport Science, Nippon Sport Science University (NSSU) before obtaining a doctoral degree (Sociology) in 1998. Taught at Toyo University at its Faculty of Letters, Faculty of Sociology, and Faculty of Human Life Design. Joined the NSSU faculty in 2014 and taught as Professor at the Faculty of Medical Science and served as Dean of the Faculty of Sport Management before appointed as the 13th President of NSSU in April 2021. Sports anthropology is the area of expertise. President of the Japan Chinlone Federation, the mission of which is to spread and provide training in the traditional sport of Myanmar.