On 15th November, the University of Nairobi, Kenya, held a symposium to commemorate 35 years of exchange with Soka University and the 30th anniversary of the honorary doctorate awarded to Soka’s founder. Soka’s President Masashi Suzuki and Vice Board Chairman Yoshihide Akiya attended.

Soka University formed an agreement with the University of Nairobi in 1988, and in 1992 Soka’s founder was awarded an honorary doctorate degree. Before the commemorative symposium, Soka University’s representatives had a talk with many of the University of Nairobi’s staff members, including Vice-Chancellor Kiama, Professor Emeritus Indangasi, and Professor Wasamba who held several exchanges with our founder. President Suzuki expressed his gratitude for 35 years of exchanges and symposiums, and also talked about the internationalization of Soka University. After that, Vice-Chancellor Kiama said, “We need the human resources being built up by our universities’ cooperation in order to resolve the wide range of problems in society, and we hope to further deepen our exchanges.”

After the talk, in honor of Soka’s founder’s contribution to Africa, an olive tree named the Daisaku Ikeda Olive was planted in front of the University of Nairobi’s Literature Department.
In addition to the University of Nairobi’s staff, students, and alumni, there were also exchange students from Soka University and alumni that now work in Kenya at the commemorative symposium. Our founder then gave this message in the same spirit that had been decided 30 years earlier: “Harambe (Let’s work together to move forward!)” calling out for “tomorrow’s hope” for the youth and “tomorrow’s peace” for the citizens of the world.
In addition to poetry readings from the University of Nairobi’s students, President Suzuki gave a speech on “Creating Value at Soka University”, while Professor Emeritus Indangasi and Professor Wasamba gave presentations on the history of exchanges between Nairobi and Soka University, making for a busy symposium.

Besides the University of Nairobi, Soka University’s representatives also visited another exchange school, the United States International University Africa, the Embassy of Japan in Kenya, and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science’s Nairobi Research Center in order to talk about Soka University’s history and future with each society.