On May 17, 2014, the 20th annual Czech Speech Contest, sponsored by the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Japan, was held at the basement of auditorium of Josai University.

Due to the Embassy of the Czech Republic’s ongoing renovation, Josai―a university which has been actively involved in student exchange and human resource development with Central European Universities and achieved many accomplishments in educational and cultural exchange in that same region―agreed to host the speech competition for the second consecutive year.

Chancellor Noriko Mizuta provided opening remarks, stating, “It is a great honor to host the Czech Speech Contest for the second year in a row.” Czech Ambassador Kateřina Fialková then followed with her own remarks. She said, “It is with great pleasure that I present the 20th Czech Speech Contest. In recent years, the number of Japanese studying the Czech language has increased dramatically. Due to the unforeseen number of applicants for this year’s competition, we hurriedly arranged to divide the contest into two parts. I would like to give Chancellor Mizuta and all the other organizers a sincere thank you for offering to host this competition.”

Thirteen professionals and students who study the Czech language took the stage for this year’s competition. Participants were to give a five-minute presentation on one of two topics (“Czech Music in 2014―Czech Music and Myself” or “My Favorite Town”) followed by a question and answer period with the panel of judges.
　 Ambassador Kateřina Fialková, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies Professor Taku Shinohara, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies Visiting Professor Marketa Gebhartova, Mr. Ikuo Shoji of the Central European division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and last year’s winner Hikari Utsuda presided as this year’s panel of strict judges, awarding Harune Hosoda with the top prize for her “rich power of expression” (in the words of Ambassador Fialková). In addition, Miwako Inoue was given the Chancellor Noriko Mizuta Award. Inoue works as a nurse, studying the Czech language at home during her spare time. Her exceptional language ability combined with her strong effort led to her being selected for the award.

Appetizers were prepared by the Czech embassy chef for the reception that followed, which participants used to get to know one another better through friendly conversation.

Josai has to date formed academic exchange agreements with three universities: Charles University in Prague, Masaryk University, and University of Economics, Prague in the Czech Republic and has been active in organizing seminars and lecture series to promote international exchange.
　 In accordance with Josai’s goal of strengthening economic exchange to cultivate global human resources, we will continue to build academic exchange with the Czech Republic and other areas of Central Europe.