The university’s President Tadashi Takizawa, Chancellor Toshiaki Kouso and Dean of the Graduate School of Global Studies Daishirou Nomiya of Sophia University presented the honorary doctorate at a function on the campus in Tokyo. Saudi Ambassador to Japan Abdulaziz Turkistani, the university’ s faculty members and students were present. Jameel said he was honored to be the first person from Saudi Arabia and the Arab world to be recognized in this way. Jameel said that he spent two years at Sophia University, and that it was a great experience for him, especially as the institute championed values that he said were wonderfully summed up in the slogan — for others, with others.

He said these values are relevant to fresh graduates, to the business leaders who employ them and the world today. Jameel added that hundreds of millions want to work but, for no fault of theirs, could not find jobs. To eliminate the problem, according to Jameel, the issue itself needed to be treated as a business.

The private sector has to play a leading role in finding and implementing the solution, making the eradication of unemployment a business problem, requiring a business solution, he said.

He added that every CEO has actually two responsibilities. The first is to lead his business sustainably, profitably and in harmony with all the stakeholders, and the second is to help his community to help themselves, in a sustainable manner.

“My father taught me an important lesson in running a business — never to forget that life is not just about you, it is about what you can do for others. From Toyota Company, I learnt not just to have respect for everyone, but to aim for continuous improvement in how our business works and in what it can achieve,” he said.

Jameel said if unemployment is not tackled sustainably in the Arab world, the Middle East will have 50 million men and women without work within a few years.

Jameel showed attendees how Bab Rizq Jameel, one of the ALJ Community Initiatives, started by creating only 10 job opportunities in 2002 and rapidly increased this number to more than 45,000 last year.