Sakura Medal

The Sakura Medal program brings together students from international schools across Japan each year to vote for their favorite books. The mission of the Sakura medal award program is to create a community of lifelong readers in international schools in Japan. We aim for a diverse selection of fantastic and engaging books.

Major Themes

• Develop a lifelong love of reading

• Encourage reading, particularly outside the classroom setting

• Create a community of readers, both in our individual schools and in the wider international school community

• Highlight Japanese authors, setting, themes and culture

• Highlight new and lesser known authors

• Diversity of genre, author, countries, experiences, worldview, and underrepresented populations

• Expose students to fantastic books in multiple formats, including graphic novels and non-fiction books

Winners of the Sakura Medal are awarded a certificate, a medal, and an original piece of art. We have modeled this after the Nobel Prize. The original art work is selected from a student art competition; an example of a past year's competition can be seen here.

Please follow us on Twitter or contact us at schoollibrariansjapan@gmail.com.