Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I think it is still acceptable to say ladies and gentlemen; otherwise, I do not know what to say. I cannot just say, “Hello, guys!”

This is the eighth contest I have judged, and each time it has been a pleasure for me. Over the course of these eight years, there has been a very significant improvement in the quality of the presentations.

Above all, there has been a remarkable improvement in the ability to engage in discourse on the part of the participants. Why do I say discourse? Because it is not just learning the English language, but using the English language to make your argument, to persuade people, to present your case in a coherent manner and on that I think the students from all over Japan have proved themselves quite capable. So, that is my first impression.

My second impression is about the topics and the themes chosen, and the topics chosen by students were very instructive for me personally. For example, they talked about financial literacy. I wished I had learned it much earlier in my life. I would have been a lot richer. The very important subject of news literacy, critical thinking, and so forth were also discussed. People talk about critical thinking in the context of Japanese education without defining what it means and it is very important to think about what it means.

There were presentations on the subject of education, including a very passionate presentation on the night junior high schools, something which we do not often think about, but which we should be caring about. And there was also SDG related subjects including recycling and so forth. Yes, on education, there was also this interesting presentation on transdisciplinary education, which is something that we should be thinking about very seriously as we contemplate our future.

And the very complex subject of digital transformation which is a bit daunting to me because I am on the wrong end of the digital divide. So this is a very good opportunity from the point of view of self-education.

One the other point about questions and answers, we among the judges have noted that the ability of the students to respond to questions has improved considerably and most of the contestants were handling the questions quite ably, but I have this point to make because there are two ways of answering a question.

If you know the answer, perfect answer, of course, you should give it. But it is not often the case that you have the perfect answer to the question. Your knowledge may be limited. In that case, what will you do? To be honest and say, “I do not know the answer.” That is one way of doing it, but you cannot score very highly by doing that.

In that case, you make the best of what you know and produce an answer to show that you are trying to arrive at the answer on the basis of what you know, and that will give a good impression to the judges, especially if a judge is somebody who has been exposed to the press as a spokesperson like me. So these are the points that I felt.

Congratulations to the winners. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much for having me today. I was very impressed with all the presentations. They were so wonderful with interesting contents full of great ideas, and they were delivered with passion and enthusiasm. I was moved by both the contents and the way they were presented.

Also, I was impressed with the amount of efforts put into the preparations. I could tell that they were not something prepared just for the sake of the competition. The finalists really tried to tackle the problems and find substantial solutions, with some interviewing experts or conducting site-visits, or carrying out their own surveys, and some even actually starting their own projects. I thought that was amazing. Please keep up the great work. I think the future of the world is bright because of young people like the participants of this contest. Good luck. Thank you.

Thank you very much for your very great presentations and I am really impressed. All your presentations are well organized and Q&A is also very good. And also, today, in charge of DX part, but I would like to jump into the other team at Q&A session because media literacy or news literacy is also connected with the field of DX.

So really this presentation contest is good for self-learning and I can receive many kinds of aspects to look into again about my business. It is a very good chance for me. Thank you very much for your presentations.

Thank you very much for your great presentations. I was pleased that some of you shed light on the neglected population or marginalized people. As many of you may know, one of the central promises of the sustainable development goals is “leaving no one behind”, and it is a global commitment to eradicate discrimination and exclusion.

About 30 years ago, I participated in a speech contest as a high school student, and one of the contestants spoke about the environmental impact of using disposable chopsticks. I remember feeling embarrassed that I was so narrow-minded and ignorant that I was only thinking about myself. It felt like lightning struck me because I had not been paying attention to the environmental issues or social issues back then.

So, I was encouraged and felt hopeful because this contest gave me a sense that young people like you think so much about the society, about the environment, and about other people. I am sure that this contest gave you an opportunity to grow, not only through preparing and rehearsing for your presentations, but also through interacting with other contestants. I hope that you have made friends and that you will continue to learn from one another. Thank you.