57th Central Contest Details

Final Contest
11:45 am Saturday, November 26, 2005 at the Yomiuri Hall, Tokyo
Organized and Administered by
The Yomiuri Shimbun, jointly with JNSA (Japan National Student Association) Fund
Supported by
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs; The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology; NHK; Prefectural Boards of Education; and Prefectural Associations of English Education.
Sponsored by
The Coca-Cola

Purpose

The purpose of this Contest is to encourage youth to learn English as an international language, to enhance Japanese culture, and to foster feelings of friendship with people of other countries.

Overview

The Prefectural Boards of Education, the Prefectural Associations of English Education and the Yomiuri Shimbun Head Quarters or the respective Prefectural Offices(the 3 groups will hereinafter be referred to as the Prefectural Contest Organizers) will decide upon a date and hold a Prefectural Contest. Students chosen at the Prefectural Contest will proceed to the Semifinal and Final Contests (also known as the Central Contest) and will compete for the Prince Takamado Trophy.

Qualification

  1. Students who are eligible to compete in this contest must be a Middle School Student from a Japanese Middle School with a recommendation from the School Principal.
  2. However, to maintain fairness in judgment, students who fall into the following categories are not able to participate in the contest. For an individual case please contact the Prince Takamado Trophy Office.
    (TEL 03-3217-8393 *13:00-18:00 weekdays, FAX 03-3217-8358, or E-mail: jnsa@jnsafund.org)
    1. Those who were born overseas and raised overseas beyond the age of five.
    2. Those who lived overseas beyond the age of five for a total of one year.
    3. Those who lived overseas more than six months continuously.
    4. Those whose parent or grandparent is a non-Japanese or naturalized Japanese, having lived in Japan for less than 40 years.
    5. Those who speak English on a daily basis with one or more family members.
    6. Those who won 1st to 7th places in any previous contests.
    7. Those who are attending or have attended a school that offers an English-speaking environment in their daily life basis.
  3. The organizer may ask the participant to refrain from participating in the contest if the above conditions are violated.

Prefectural Contests

  1. Date and Place will be decided by the Prefectural Contest Organizers.
  2. The Prefectural Contest Organizers will be able to hold two contests; the English Oratorical Speech Contest and the Recitation Contest.

English Oratorical Contest

  1. Application Method: An application form for H.I.H. Prince Takamado Trophy Contest and two copies of the speech draft must be submitted by the deadline stipulated by each prefecture to each prefectural Board of Education or Association of English Education. (There are no participation fees.)
  2. Contestants: Up to 2 students per school.
  3. Title: Not specified. The speech must reflect the contestant's opinion and statement of things from daily lives to environmental issues. If over one-third of the speech is extracted from other materials, the contestant will be disqualified. Speeches that have already been made for another contest or that are in the process of participation in another contest are to be disqualified.
  4. Time Limit: 5 minutes. Those whose speech exceeds five minutes are to be disqualified.
  5. Copyright: The copyright of the speeches belong to the Organizers of the contest.
  6. Other terms and Conditions:
    1. Use of microphones is not permitted.
    2. Use of any eye-catching tools and/or excessive gestures and performance are prohibited.
    3. Standing in front of or by the side of the speech table while the speech is being delivered is prohibited, unless the contestant is determined to possess justifiable reasons.
    4. Violation of one or more of the above rules may result in the deduction of points from the final score.

Recitation

The terms and conditions should be pursuant to those of the English Oratorical Contest Division. However the application method, the title, and the time limit will differ from prefecture to prefecture so please contact the Prefectural Contest Organizers for further information.

  1. Qualifications of the Central Contest: The top three contestants of the Prefectural English Oratorical Contest (except that Tokyo, Osaka, Kanagawa and Hokkaido will have five contestants and that Aichi and Fukuoka will have four contestants) will be eligible to participate in the Central Contest. However only one student is allowed to represent his/her prefecture from one school, and if there are more than one from one school, the student with the higher mark will proceed to the Central Contest and the runner up from a different school will receive the qualification for the Central Contest.
  2. Awards: All of the Prefectural Contest participants will receive a certificate and a medal. Both the Prefectural Representative his/her School will receive an awarding plaque from the Coca Cola.

Central Contests

Semifinal Contests

  1. Schedule
    Date and time Semifinal Contest Divisions Semifinal Contest Divisions Number of Schools for Final Contest
    Nov. 24
    9:00 am - 1:10 pm    		 Region 1-Kanto District
    Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, Ibaraki, Gunma, Tochigi, Chiba, Nagano, Yamanashi and Shizuoka Prefectures.    		 6 (out of 34)
    Nov. 24
    1:40 pm - 6:10 pm    		 Region 2-Northern Japan
    Hokkaido, Aomori, Iwate, Akita, Miyagi, Yamagata, Nigata, Fukushima, Toyama, Ishikawa, Fukui and Gifu Prefectures.    		 7 (out of 38)
    Nov. 25
    9:00 am  - 1:35 pm    		 Region 3-Central Japan
    Aichi, Shiga, Mie, Nara, Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo, Shimane, Tottori, Okayama and Hiroshima Prefectures.    		 7 (out of 39)
    Nov. 25
    2:05 pm - 6:45 pm    		 Region 4-Southern Japan
    Yamaguchi, Tokushima, Kagawa, Ehime, Kochi, Fukuoka, Oita, Saga, Miyazaki, Nagasaki, Kumamoto, Kagoshima and Okinawa Prefectures.    		 7 (out of 40)

  2. Venue: Conference Room on the 9th floor of The Yomiuri Shimbun, Tokyo Office (1-7-1 Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku Tokyo, Tel 03-3217-8393)
  3. Participants: Students chosen at the Prefectural Contests must submit a copy of their speech (A4 size, one page) and the Application Form to the Prince Takamado Trophy Office. If more than one-third of the speech is changed after the Prefectural Contest, the student will be disqualified.
  4. Judging Method: The speech will be judged from 3 categories (English, Content and Delivery)
  5. Subsidy for Expenses: The Coca-Cola will cover the travel and accommodation costs for contestants in the Central (Semifinal and Final) Contests.

Final Contest

  1. Date and Time: Saturday November 26th, 2005 from 11:45 am ~ 3:45 pm
  2. Venue: The Yomiuri Hall in Yurakucho, Tokyo (near Yurakucho JR Station)
  3. Participants: 27 contestants chosen at the Semifinal Contest.

Awards for the Final Contest

  1. First Place
    • Prince Takamado Trophy
  2. Second Place
    • Yomiuri Shimbun Trophy
  3. Third Place
    • JNSA Fund Trophy
  4. Fourth Place
    • The Daily Yomiuri Trophy
  5. Fifth Place
    • Yomiuri Shimbun Trophy
  6. Sixth Place
    • Yomiuri Shimbun Trophy
  7. Seventh Place
    • Yomiuri Shimbun Trophy
  8. Eighth to Twenty-Seventh Place
    • Supplementary Prizes
First to Third Place
  • The Yomiuri Shimbun will award certificates to the schools of the top three winners.
  • JNSA Fund will award certificates to the top three students and gold, silver, and bronze medals to the winner and first two runners-up respectively.
  • The Coca-Cola will provide high school and college scholarships of \1 million for the first-prize winner, \700,000 for the second-prize winner, and \500,000 for the third-prize winner.
  • Soroptimist International Tokyo-Azuma will present the top three students with mini-disk audio equipment.
  • IBM Japan will present the schools of the top three winners with personal computers.
  • King Jim Co. Ltd. will provide the schools of the top three winners with a label writer "TEPRA" with Braille feature device.
  • The Daily Yomiuri will present a one-year subscription of its newspapers to the schools of the top three winners.
  • The HSBC Group will invite the top seven winners to a Summer School Program for two weeks in the United Kingdom in the following year.
  • SEIKO Watch Corp. will present the top seven winners with a wrist watch.
Fourth to Seventh Place
  • The Yomiuri Shimbun will award certificates to the schools of the fourth- through seventh-place finishers.
  • JNSA Fund will award certificates and medals to the fourth- through seventh-place students.
  • The Daily Yomiuri will present six-month subscriptions of its newspapers to the schools of the fourth- to seventh-place winners.
The Coca-Cola Environmental and Social Contribution Award
  • In principle, this award is awarded to a few schools whose speakers made outstanding speeches on Environmental or Social Issues at the Final Contest.
All Finalists
  • A medal will be presented to each of the eighth- through twenty-seventh- place finalists.
  • The Daily Yomiuri will present three-month subscriptions of its newspapers to the schools of the eighth- to twenty-seventh- place finalists.
All of the Contestants
Certificates of participation and medals will be awarded to all Central Contest participants, in addition to prizes from Coca-Cola Bottlers, Kenkyusha, Bijutsu Shuppan Design Center, Sanford Japan Ltd., Pentel Co. Ltd., TDK Co., Akane-Kai, ECC, PILOT Corporation, King Jim Co. Ltd., HSBC group, SEIKO Watch Corp., VTV Japan, Inc., and the JNSA Fund.
Contribution to the Reception
The Coca-Cola, Yamazaki Baking Co., Lotte Snow Co. Ltd., Suntory Ltd., and the Imperial Hotel.

Miscellaneous

JNSA FUND. All Rights Reserved.