On July 16th, 2019, the finals of the 14th National Japanese Speech Competition for College Students were held in Hitotsubashi lecture hall, Tokyo, Japan. The competition is sponsored by the Nihon Keizai Shimbum, the China Education Association for International Exchange and the Society of Chinese Professors in Japan, co-sponsored by the Japanese Teaching Steering Subcommittee of the Foreign Language and Literature Professional Teaching Steering Committee of the Ministry of Education Institutions of Education, and the China Japanese Teaching Research Association, and supported by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Culture and Science of Japan, Chinese Embassy in Japan, China-Japan Friendship Association, etc.
The finals are divided into propositional speeches and improvisational questions. After fierce competition, Meng Yifan, a student from the College of Foreign Languages of Jilin University, won an award with a total score of second place.
Although Meng Yifan only studied Japanese for two years, she competed with the third and fourth-grade seniors in the final, and her performance was stable and well received by the judges.
The preliminaries of the competition were held in eight districts: Northeast District, North District, Beijing District, Northwest District, Central District, East District,, South District, and Southwest District, from May to June this year. Each competition district selected two contestants to Japan to participate in the finals. More than 18,000 students participated in the school preliminaries.
Takeoka Rinji of Nihon Keizai Shimbum, Zhang Mei of the Chinese Embassy in Japan, Li Chunsheng of the China Education Association for International Exchange, delivered speeches before the competition. The judges of the finals include Hayashi Kyoko, president of Tokyo University of Foreign Studies; Kanki Yuichi, vice president of the Society of Japanese Language Education; SunakawaYuichi, director of the Japanese International Center of the International Exchange Foundation; Xiu Gang, former president of Tianjin Foreign Studies University and vice chairman of the Foreign Language and Literature Teaching Steering Committee of the Ministry of Education, Xu Yiping, honorary president of the China Japanese Teaching and Research Association, the professor of Beijing Foreign Studies University; Zhou Yifu, dean of the School of Foreign Languages of Jilin University, Tang Yaming, president of the Japan Overseas Chinese Literature and Art Federation; andGotou Takuhiko, Chinese Network publisher of Nihon Keizai Shimbum.
After the competition, contestants will also go to the Education Department of the Chinese Embassy in Japan to participate in the exchange activities of Chinese and Japanese university students, visit former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and visit well-known Japanese enterprises to deepen their understanding of Japan.
