I am Iwao Shibata, who has been appointed as the new president.
We organized the first Japanese Speech Contest for foreign diplomats in 1998.
Since then, we have been holding the contest to create an opportunity to deepen the understanding between Japan and each country, and to show the wonderfulness of international exchange.
We continue our corporate philosophy of establishing activities that can be felt and we are working towards further development.
The purpose of this contest is for the embassies of each country to experience Japan through the opportunity to give a speech in Japanese about the differences with their native culture.
At the same time with expanding grassroots international exchange, we believe that one should feel the value of Japanese culture and its connection with the world.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Iwao Shibata
President, Foreign Embassies Friendship Association
