Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Since I have been listening to all these presentations in English, allow me to continue in English for the benefit of non-Japanese judges as well. Well, they may be very fluent in Japanese but they may be hiding it.
It has been a great pleasure for me to be a part of the judging panel again this year. I did it for the first time last year and I was very impressed.
I was even more impressed this year by the very high standards of presentation exhibited here. I was also struck by what I would call the trend for decentralization, that is, if you look at all the participants in this final contest today, they are not Tokyo-centered. They come from all over Japan, including Okinawa. I think that’s a very good trend because it shows that there are centers of excellence emerging in all parts of Japan.
We were commenting that perhaps there is a little more emphasis on the western part of Japan which gives encouragement to those people who are around Tokyo. That is my first point. Not only geographically but in terms of this is tackled, there were diverse topics covered, not just by people who major in English or Law, whatever, but medicine, science, engineering and so forth which also is a very encouraging sign.
One other point I will note is that there are obviously people who were deeply committed to the topics that they addressed and that shows especially in questions and answers. That we found very encouraging. And, all we know we have a difficult time judging. The results will be announced shortly.
But, as a senior citizen I drew great encouragement from listening to all these young people and I think we can have a bright hope for the future.
Thank you very much.

I would like to also say thank you for the invitation. This is the first time that I have judged a contest of this magnitude. Before joining the embassy, I was an English teacher and I’ve judged some smaller scale English language presentations, but I have to say in my experience this was the most impressive. I was very impressed at how original and creative all of the presentations were and in particular as a former teacher, I was very impressed at the critical thinking that these presentations took very key issues of the day and took the topics and got creative and thought very critically about it. In particular, I was impressed with some presentations that took what are the challenges and drawbacks of their proposal and how they coherently addressed these issues and the other thing I was really impressed about was the international focus; how this applies to the broader world and I think that’s very important in this day and age as we continue to be in a globalized world. And the last thing I want to echo what my previous fellow judge said, I was very impressed by the questions of the audience how sharp you were in your understanding of the presentations and in particular highlighting particular details and picking it apart and critically thinking about it to keep the people here today on their feet. So thank you again for the invitation and well done everyone.

Thank you. It’s my great pleasure and honor to be invited as one of the judges today. I was so impressed with every presentation. I clearly recall which I experienced 40 years ago. I participated in English presentation contest nationwide, but at that time English presentation skill capability is no comparison to today which you made. So I think everybody is a winner. Thank you very much for your great presentations and there are three themes for this presentation contest. But basically, main theme is the Japan brand. Using the three different themes, all you folks and all the students made a great presentation on behalf of Japan and sell, market Japan brand. Thank you very much.

　非常によく練習をされていた成果から説得力もあり、皆さん自信を持ってプレゼンテーションをされていたので、その点は誇りに思われていいと思います。私も大変エンジョイさせていただきました。
　社会に出ていかれた時に一番大事なことは「クリエイティビィティ」であり、このようなコンテストに参加されたことを第一歩に、これからもいろいろなことに好奇心を持って、特に身近にあることなども含めまして、新しいことをどんどん世の中に提案していっていただきたいと思います。
また、プレゼンテーション後に行われるQ＆Aは、非常に大事なことだと思います。皆さん、自分のロジックでプレゼンテーションをされますが、聴衆からの質問にどのように答えていくか、ということは大事なことなので、そこはもう少し訓練をされてもいいのではないかと思いました。
　私のビジネスの経験では、クライアントに1時間いただき、30分でプレゼンテーションをと思っても、「あなたからの話は3分でいい、質問させてください」ということが多々あります。いろいろな角度の質問に耐えられるに自分を丹念することは非常に大事なことだと思います。

Thank you all very much. I can only echo what my fellow judges have said. I was very impressed and very glad to be here again this year. The only advice I think I can give all of you is you’ve done a huge amount of work preparing these presentations, putting your thoughts together. Don’t stop now. We all know that Japan’s economy is at a critical point. Everyone has to look externally and internationally and I know working with Japanese companies that they are all looking for good bilingual professionals who can take the Japanese corporate culture abroad and all of you can be at the forefront of that. So presentation skill is something that you never really finish working on. It’s something you can always improve upon. So please keep at it and good luck. Thank you.

　私はこのような英語のプレゼンテーションコンテストでジャッジさせていただくのは初めてです。本日、プレゼンターの方々の英語のすばらしさ、観客の方々とのインタラクションのすばらしさに大変驚きました。
　コンテストのテーマ3「海外向けにひと工夫！製品アイデアを売り込め」で、私もプレゼンターに質問をさせていただきましたが、これは海外の見本市で並べてもいいのではないかと思うほど、オリジナリティに富んだプレゼンテーションだったんだと思います。正直、スクリプトを暗記し練習を重ねこの大会に臨まれのでは、と少々思っていましたが、プレゼンテーション後のQ＆Aセッションを見て、すでにすばらしい英語力を習得していらっしゃると認識しました。英語でこれだけすばらしいプレゼンテーションができるということは、当然ロジカルに話せるということですから、日本語でもすばらしいプレゼンテーションができる皆さんだと思います。

Hello and really again thank you all the great speeches and I just want to say all of you will soon head out into the grown-up world, as we like to say, and you are all such a step ahead. Everybody who participated in the contest, the finalists and everybody else; it is scary to get up in front of a lot of people and give a presentation, especially in a foreign language. I have done that. I know how scary it is and you guys took hold of that fear and you controlled and you got up here anyway and you did really well. And that is so important out in the main life because I’ll admit the times in my life when I have failed, not that I didn’t succeed, but I failed. It was because of fear. It was because I told myself I wasn’t smart enough. I couldn’t do something and an opportunity more than one, to be honest, slipped away. And you guys are already so much of a step ahead in that regard because you took hold of that fear. So not just in speech contest like this, but out in the world to come and everything, don’t be afraid. You guys are terrific. You can do so much and even if you are afraid, stomp on it and keep going. And you will, I have no doubt, achieve remarkable things. Thank you guys so much. Really wonderful.

　この度、初めて審査員をさせていただきました。防災、減災の分野は、日本から世界に発信するべきものが非常に多い分野です。これは国連で私が防災の分野で仕事をしていて非常に感じるところです。そのような観点からも、プレゼンテーションのテーマのひとつに「日本の防災・減災ノウハウを世界にアピール！」を選んでいただいたことをとても感謝しております。皆さんのプレゼンテーションを聞いていても、非常にエンカレッジされる（励まされる）気分になりました。どの社会、どの仕事についても、プレゼンテーションする機会はあり、30分と想定していたプレゼンテーションが3分になることもめずらしいことではありません。そのような時、相手にメッセージ性が伝わるか、説得力があるかどうかが結果を変えます。つまり相手にどれだけ印象づけられるか、伝わるかということが一番大事だと思います。本日は非常にすばらしいプレゼンテーションを聞かせていただきましたが、これからも今のご努力の継続で社会に出てもご活躍をしていただきたいと思います。皆様のポテンシャルを非常に感じた大会でした。これからも頑張ってください。