Greetings to the Japanese Association of University Women
Twenty-five years−a quarter of a century! It sounds like such a long time−but it really is not in the life of an organization. There was so much yet to be accomplished twenty-five years ago−primarily, the right and the opportunity for Japanese women to earn college degrees, that they might enjoy professional competence in the world of economic opportunity, and equal social status with their husbands in their homes and in their communities. The legal obstacles were abolished by the Diet and by the University Accreditation Association in fairly quick succession. But the real stumbling block lay in the minds of Japanese girls and their parents and their teachers. So much time and effort and money would be required! There was need for a strongly organized group of women who had enjoyed
college education in other lands, and who knew how much their lives had been enriched by that experience. Such a body of committed and dedicated women would find ways and means of encouraging and assisting young girls and their parents to take advantage of this new opportunity. Organizations of University women in other countries had long been at work on just this kind of program. It was logical that such an organization should be started in Japan.
And now, twenty-five years later, the Japanese Association of University Women is firmly launched. Statistics prove that you have already accomplished a part of your goal−to help increasing numbers of girls and women to enjoy a four-year college experience and to obtain a degree signifying the successful culmination of their efforts. You have made a place for your organization in the international world by your wise mingling with University women in other countries so often as possible. You have helped foreign women to study in Japanese colleges and universities, and you have assisted Japanese women to study abroad.　You have shown your awareness of necessary changes and adjustments in higher education as world conditions and domestic needs for trained people vary, and as a broadening base of students appears on college campuses.
The next twenty-five years will be even more challenging and exciting than the quarter century has been. I have every confidence that you, the Japanese Association of University Women, will assume your rightful share of responsibility for new plans, for forging into new and untried areas in higher education. Your will be one of the truly influential bodies of women in the world of the future.
Sayonara! My best wishes and earnest prayers go with you.