Georgetown University Commencement Speech
2025.05.19
私の母校であるジョージタウン大学の国際学部（School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University）の２０２５年度の卒業式での記念スピーチをすることになりました。
私は１９８５年１２月に卒業したので、１９８６年５月の卒業式に出席することが来ませんでした。
今回、名誉博士号を授与され、Ｄｒ．ＫＯＮＯとして、卒業式に参加し、スピーチをしてきました。
大変名誉なことでした。
とりあえず、スピーチの原稿です。
Interim President Groves
Interim Provost Colbert
Dean Hellman
Members of the faculty and staff
Distinguished guests, family, and friends
and
Fellow Hoyas,
Good afternoon and CONGRATULATIONS!
My name is KONO Taro.
I graduated from the School of Foreign Service in December 1985, but I missed my graduation ceremony in May 1986.
So, I am very grateful and honored to be invited to speak here today.
I grew up in Japan and went to a university in Tokyo, but quit after two months and came to a prep school called Suffield Academy in Connecticut in 1981.
My English did not exist, but I had to take the SAT for college admissions. On my first try, I got 280 in English. So, on my second try, I put numbers on my pencil and rolled the pencil when I did not know the answers. My pencil got me 380. And the School of Foreign Service accepted me, or maybe my pencil?
So, tell your brothers and sisters in high schools not to worry about SAT scores. All you need is 380, and one day you can be a Foreign Minister.
In my freshman year, I signed up for a seminar called “American Foreign Policy Process” with Dr. Madeline Albright.
During the first class of this seminar, American students as usual, kept talking and talking. I, as a quiet foreign freshman, was not able to cut in, so I just listened and kept thinking about how they could talk so much nonsense.
But after the first class, Dr. Albright told me if I was not going to make a contribution to the class, I did not need to come back.
I tried to explain that I was a student from Japan and my English was still not good. Instead of sympathizing, she snapped, “That’s your problem.”
So, I began talking before anyone else started to say anything in the class. Eventually, someone would cut in and steal the conversation, but I could say I did my share for the day.
We had to write a term paper for the seminar, and I wrote about why Senator William Fulbright, the legendary Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, lost in the Democratic primary in 1974 to a Governor.
Yes, you can say anything about foreign policy, but what matters is the price of pork or now eggs in the market.
During my time at Georgetown, I interned for then-Democratic Congressman Richard Shelby of Alabama. Eventually, Shelby decided to run for the Senate. As I was a non-paid intern, he asked me to help his campaign, and I was more than happy to do so.
He took me down to Alabama. At a time before Google Maps, he drove a car and this young Japanese boy tried to read paper maps and navigate through the back roads in small towns of Alabama. When he gave speeches, people listened and asked many questions. For me, it really was the America of Alexis de Tocqueville.
I watched Shelby go out drinking with Democratic Congressmen as well as Republicans. He even went duck-hunting with the Senators of both parties. He always tried to talk to everyone to move his bills forward.
The greatness of America does not just stem from its economic power or military strength. America is great because it protects freedom, it cherishes the rule of law, and it embodies democracy.
Freedom, rule of law, and democracy do not come easy. For many people on this planet, these are not given. They are something you have to fight to earn.
To many people outside of the United States, America was great because America has stood with them, supported them, and even fought with them to uphold these values.
Since the end of World War II, the United States has shouldered a significant burden to maintain a free and liberal international order.
During this period, America’s allies, including Japan, have been able to keep their defense budgets minimum and invest in economic development. This international order, until now, has contributed to the economic prosperity of most countries, including the United States.
Now Japan is America’s number one foreign direct investor creating nearly 1 million U.S. jobs and investing almost one trillion dollars in the U.S. economy – your success is our success.
Yet the world has changed.
The postwar international order, which I studied here in Georgetown and have worked hard to protect, is under siege.
States that do not share the values of freedom, rule of law, and democracy are attempting to change the status quo, and they are doing so by force and coercion.
The global balance of power is shifting, quickly and dramatically. Some countries have even chosen the path of war, whether physical, cyber, or trade, to seek their national aims.
China, which has increased its military spending 28-fold in last thirty years and continues to flout international rules, poses the greatest risk to the global order.
The United States alone cannot bear the burden of realizing our dream of a free and open Indo-Pacific. But it doesn’t have to. Japan is standing by its side. The U.S.-Japan alliance will continue to be the cornerstone of peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific.
Having served as Japan’s Foreign Minister and Defense Minister, I have been directly involved in the planning and implementation of Japan’s diplomatic and national security strategies.
Japan remains committed to promoting a free and open rules-based global economy and looks forward to continuing to work with the United States, our close friend and ally, to keep our economies, indeed, the global economy on a growth trajectory for decades to come.
When I attended the ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting in Bangkok in 2019, the Defense Ministers of the ASEAN member states kept telling me they would not choose between the United States and China. But at the Gala Dinner that evening, the Royal Thai Navy Band started to play Louis Armstrong, then Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, and so on, ending with Simon & Garfunkel.
All American songs. So, I turned to an ASEAN defense minister seated next to me and said, “They seem to have made a choice,” and he winked at me and said, “Of course, we all have. And you know why.”
We have all seen, during the Cultural Revolution of China, if you were contradicting the Party, you were punished by the Red Guards, who had no legal authority.
Government employees shut their mouths when they saw their colleagues unjustly fired. Universities closed the programs which may be seen as defying the idea of the great Communist leader.
The Great Leap Forward, which was supposed to create a great socialist economy, ended up breaking down the Chinese economy for years.
The Chinese economy today, however, is extensive and intertwined with the global economy, and China does not talk about democracy or human rights of the other countries.
We need to understand the feelings of the Global South and walk along with them, and when possible, provide alternatives to China, whether it is market access, investment, or technological cooperation.
And as a long-time friend of the United States, I am obliged to say the United States must understand the importance of the rules that have underpinned the global order.
When we criticize authoritarian regimes for not following international rules, we are often asked questions like, “What about the United States?” or “Why aren’t you telling the same thing to Washington?” This is, unfortunately, very compelling. As we promote a rule-based international order, the United States must be a member of the system, because without American participation, other countries, who do not always share our values, will only increase their influence in the world.
So, those of you who are graduating today, you shall work hard to make America truly great again.
And soon, because of the climate crisis, it will not matter which country is great and which is not. We all need to work together to keep this beautiful planet great for all of us.
No country alone can do this. So, young Hoyas,
stand up and speak up to make the whole world great again.
Thank you and Hoya Saxa.
