The Fourth Annual Consulate General of Japan in Boston
Japanese Language Contest
Guidelines

1. The Japanese Language Contest is comprised of two areas:

• a speech contest
• an essay contest

Participants may enter only one area of the contest.

2. The speech component of the Japanese Language Contest will be held on Saturday, April 11, 2015. 

3. The contest is open to students who are currently enrolled in a Japanese language course at a university/college within the six New England states (CT/MA/ME/NH/RI/VT) and :

• have not lived in Japan three or more years in total since 2004
• do not come from homes where Japanese has been spoken regularly
• have not won the first prize in the same category of this contest in the past

4. The deadline for entries is Friday, March 6 at 5:00pm EST.  Essays or speech texts must arrive by that time at the Consulate General of Japan in Boston.

While submission by postal mail is fine, email submissions are strongly encouraged.　Send the essay or speech text as an email attachment (Word or pdf preferred) to: infocul@bz.mofa.go.jp

5. Each entry must include a fully completed Entry Form, which indicates the exact character count. The Entry Form should be filled in by the author of the essay or speech, checked and signed by the author’s instructor and sent as a scan along with the essay or speech to the email address above.

The Entry Form and Guidelines (this page) can be downloaded from the Consulate’s website.

• Students should choose the appropriate contest level:

• Speech Contest:

• Intermediate Division: students who have completed fewer than 2 years of Japanese language study AND have not studied in Japan

• Advanced Division: students who have completed two or more years of Japanese language study OR students who have studied in Japan for one semester or more at the college level.

•  Essay Contest:
• Intermediate Division: students who have completed fewer than 2 years of Japanese language study AND have not studied in Japan

• Advanced Division: students who have completed two or more years of Japanese language study OR students who have studied in Japan for one semester or more at the college level.

(Two years of high school Japanese is counted as one year at the university level.)

7. The essay’s topic must be “私の日本”　

8. Any topic is acceptable for the speech.

9. Both the essay and speech must be written in Japanese.

10. Both the essay and speech must be typed.

11. The length of the essay or speech should be no more than 800 characters.  Essays or speeches which do not conform to the character limit will be disqualified.  Students must write their name and the title of their essay or speech on the page, neither of which will count toward the 800 character limit.

12. Entries will not be returned.

13. Finalists of the speech contest will be notified individually by the last week of March.  Speech contest finalists will compete at the Japanese Language Contest on April 11, 2015　at the Coolidge Corner Branch of the Brookline Public Library, Brookline, MA. Essay contest winners will also be notified individually by the last week of March.

14. Copyright of all essays and speech will be retained by the Consulate General of Japan in Boston. 

15. Only previously unpublished essays and speech will be accepted.

16. If plagiarism is found, the entry will be disqualified.