San Diego Japanese Speech Contest 2025
We are pleased to announce that the 26th annual San Diego Japanese Speech Contest for 2025 will be held on Sunday, March 2nd at the University of California, San Diego.
Date, Time, and Location
Date: March 2 (Sunday)
Time: 12:00 PM - 5:00 PM (estimated time) (Registration 11:15 AM - 11:45 AM)
Location: Pepper Canyon Hall 109 at the University of California San Diego
Parking: Gilman Parking Structure
Eligibility
● All Japanese language learners who enrolled/ have enrolled in high school or college level Japanese classes during the 2024-2025 academic year can apply for the contest.
● There are four divisions:
1) High School Division
2) College/University Division I (first- and second- year level)
3) College/University Division II (third- and fourth- year level)
4) Heritage Speakers Division (High school & College Combined)
● Participants who won 1st place in the college/university divisions cannot participate in the same category again.
● High school students who wish to be selected for the Aurora High School Speech Contest must place 1st, 2nd, or 3rd in their local speech contest. To support high school students’ eligibility for the national speech contest, we allow them to compete again regardless of their past contest results.
● Japanese heritage speakers and students who had more than six months of schooling in Japan after age six qualify for the Heritage Speakers Division.
● Japanese native speakers are not eligible to participate in this contest.
Requirement
● Each speech must be five minutes or less in length for all levels.
● The topic for speeches is open.
● Each participant will be asked a few questions after the presentation of the speech, and judges will make decisions based on both the quality of performance of the speech and interactions with the judges in Japanese.
● Participants do not need to submit their written speech script before the contest. However, thorough preparation for the speech content and performance is expected.
● Reading a written script during the contest will be prohibited. All participants are expected to deliver their message to the audience in an enthusiastic way. Eye contact will be very important!
● Participants are required to attend the entire duration of the contest. Partial participation (e.g., only presenting one’s own speech) is not allowed.
Application
● Application is open until February 14th (5pm)
● Application Form (Google Forms)
Note
If there are more participants than expected, the committee will ask each school to select their candidate representatives from within their school. The number of students that each school may nominate will be determined based on the size of the program.
Question
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.
Contact: San Diego Japanese Speech Contest Committee Chair
Junko Tokuda Simpson (jtsimpson@ucsd.edu)
Updated on Feb 4
Application is open until February 14th (5pm)