A number of Saudi boys and girls participated recently in the 7th Japanese language speech contest jointly organized by the Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information and the Japan Embassy.

Addressing the grand finale of the contest, Katsuhiko Takahashi, charge d’ affaires, Japan Embassy said: “We are happy to hold the contest this time to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the establishing of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Japan.”

He said this is the 7th Japanese language speech contest, pointing out that the previous four contests were open only to the students of the Japanese language course at King Saud University.

“For the last two years and for the first time in the Kingdom the contest has been expanded to the public as a large number of individuals from different backgrounds expressed an interest to participate,” Takahashi said, adding that women participants had also been taking part in the contest since then.

He said there are more than six hundred students enrolled in various universities in Japan.

“Those students who have completed their studies in Japan are now playing important roles in different fields in the Kingdom. We will do our best to increase the number of people interested to study in Japan as they will be ambassadors for the Kingdom and act as a bridge between the two countries,” he said.

“We will also try hard to make the Japanese language popular in the Kingdom,” he said.

The final Japanese language contest was held on Nov. 22 after short-listing a number of candidates from across the Kingdom. Six of the selected participants gave speeches in Japanese on themes entitled “Japanese language and Arabic language” and “me and my teachers.”

The audience was fascinated with the fluent Japanese of the participants as they narrated their unique stories with a combination of verbal and body gestures, the official said.

The candidates were divided into two levels, standard and advanced based on the length of their stay in Japan.

The first prizewinner of the standard level went to Atheer Khaled Alsoghayer and the second prize to Yousif Adel A. Aljomaih, whereas for the advanced level, Saad Mohammed S. Alsufayan won the first prize and Saad Nasser Alhuresen bagged the second prize.