The Finals Day of the annual Japanese Speech Contest for University Students was held on Saturday 2^nd March 2024, in the  Great Hall of King’s College London. Twenty-three students from eleven universities across the United Kingdom gave fantastic speeches and presentations in Japanese in front of a large audience. We were honoured to welcome all the finalists and thrilled to listen to their well-thought ideas expressed entirely in Japanese.

If you missed out on attending Finals Day, or if you did attend and want to re-watch the speeches and presentations, you can view them on our YouTube channel by clicking on the link below:

The 19^th Japanese Speech Contest for University Students – Finals Day Video

Opening remarks were given by Mr OKAZAKI Yasuyuki, Minister for Public Diplomacy and Media, Embassy of Japan in the UK; Ms HASEGAWA Yuko from King’s College London; and Mr TAKAHASHI Kazuya, Deputy Director of The Japan Foundation, London.

Individual Presentation Category

Five finalists in the Individual Presentation Category (post-beginner category) gave presentations using PowerPoint slides and talked about their chosen topics. We were impressed by the variety of topics chosen by the five finalists.

The first prize winner in this category was Peter Ashton, a 2nd year student at SOAS University of London, who gave a presentation on “Talent and Effort”, which made us realise how use of the label “talent” can be too easily applied disregarding an individual’s own effort.

Sam O'Connell, a 2nd year student at the University of Edinburgh, won the second prize for this presentation about “Alternative Worlds & Alternative Selves: Identity Exploration in Online Games” where he shared his own experiences of establishing a new type of global friendship and enhancing skills through participating in massively multiplayer online role-playing games.

The three runners-up who also gave brilliant presentations were: Samuel Lynn (Keele University, “English - Etymology, history, and a few fun facts”), Grace Chak Kwan Ching (University of Bath, “Chinese ligatures”), Thomas Merryfield (University of Edinburgh, “Why Humankind Seeks to Achieve the Unachieved”). ​

Speech Category

After a short break, five speech category finalists -students studying Japanese as either a degree or non-degree course - gave their speeches in Japanese (finalists in this category do not use visual aids or PowerPoint), and took part in a question-and-answer session with an interlocutor.

Minju Kim, a 4th year student at the University of Edinburgh, won first prize for her speech entitled “Japan and South Korea: Building a Stronger Relationship through the Power of Dialogue”, which stressed the importance of civil and open dialogue.

Second prize went to Jamie Shepherd, a 4th year student at the University of Cambridge, for his speech “Kōan in an age of intolerance”, which explained connection Kōan could have to contemporary society.

There were three fantastic runners-up in this category: Kia Puusa (University of Manchester, “Happiness Redefined: A Finnish Perspective”), Apolline Debroux (University of East Anglia, “The Silence of the Youth: Fostering Dialogue and Political Engagement in Japan”), and Callum Cafferty (SOAS University of London, “Japan’s Energy Self-sufficiency Problem”).

 Group Presentation Category

After the Speech Category, Group Presentation Category finalists, who are studying Japanese at a beginner level, gave group presentations using PowerPoint slides. They all received participation prizes rather than being placed individually.

The presentation this year were: “Festivals of Leicester” (Team Golden Mile, University of Leicester), “Chinese Wedding Customs” (Team Egg-Chan Duo, Imperial College London), “The definition of a mother tongue” (Team Mancunians, University of Manchester), “Yorkshire!” (Team James & Emma: Yorkshire People, Newcastle University), and “national stereotypes” (Team (Lon)donkatsu, King’s College London.

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After all the speeches and presentations and shortly before the award ceremony, there was a Japanese sing-along to the song “Furusato”. The award ceremony began with a short speech from Mr TANAKA Shin-ichi, Director of Japan Foundation, London, and the judges’ remarks, conveyed by Ms NARUMI-MUNRO Fumiko, Chair of the British Association for Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language.

During the award ceremony, the students received their prizes and the winners in each category were asked to say a few words. A lot of students expressed their gratitude for the continuous support of their language teachers at their universities, which made the audience think of the tremendous effort they must have undertaken preparing for Finals Day. Everyone ave a big round of applause to the finalists and all finalists in all three categories received prizes kindly provided by our generous sponsors, displayedat the bottom of this article.

The day closed with a photo session and a drinks reception – opened with a toast from Ms Jenny White, Chief Executive of the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation (one of the Speech Contest’s generous sponsors).

We were so honoured to welcome all the l great finalists in person, as well as many attendees, including friends and families of the finalists and teachers of Japanese,  to the Great Hall of King’s College London. We hope everyone enjoyed this year’s contest.   

皆さん、お疲れさまでした！

Download the event programme

Download Speech Category summaries and Individual and Group Presentation abstracts

View videos of all the speeches and presentations

View photos from Finals Day

Information on the BATJ website

We would like to thank all participants, their teachers and supporters, the judges, audience members and BATJ for making the contest such a success. In addition, special thanks must go to the generous sponsors who supported this event:

The Nineteenth Japanese Speech Contest for University Students was organised by the British Association for Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language (BATJ) and the Japan Foundation, London in joint partnership. We are grateful to all the members of staff who devoted their time and energy towards making this event a success.

We would also like to express our gratitude to King’s College London, for letting us use their Great Hall as a venue.