Look back on 2025: Japanese Speech Contest

Yuki Tokumaru and Cleo Bowen reflect on another successful year for Imperial at the BATJ Japanese Speech Contest

December is a good time to look back at our achievements in the year gone by. One of these in 2025 was the performance of Imperial College London students at the Finals Day of the annual BATJ Japanese Speech Contest for University Students. The Imperial entrants did brilliantly and took home both a winner's prize and second place prize.

Held on 1 March 2025 at King’s College London, this was the 20th anniversary of the contest. Twenty-four student finalists from ten universities across the UK delivered a wide range of thought-provoking speeches and presentations - entirely in Japanese - for an eager audience. Amongst the audience this year were some fellow Imperial students giving their peers moral support.

Kevin Cheng (Japanese Level 4, 3rd Year Chemical Engineering)  gave a presentation entitled 「AIとより良い社会」 (AI and a Better Society) and explored the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on modern society, highlighting both its benefits and potential risks. Kevin was awarded Second Prize in the Individual Presentation Category

The Imperial group consisting of Xinlin Li (Japanese Level 2, 2nd Year Chemistry), Olivia Guo (Japanese Level 2, 2nd Year Mathematics), Yuchen Sun (Japanese Level 2, 2nd Year Mathematics) and Justin Guo (Japanese Level 2, 2nd Year Mathematics) gave a talk about「麻雀（マージャン）」 (Mahjong, a Chinese traditional game) and entertained the audience. The team was announced as one of five winners in the Group Presentation Category.

 Teacher Yuki Tokumaru proudly said "The students put in tremendous effort for this competition. Beside their challenging main degree study and the Japanese Horizon course, for four months they worked hard from selection stage to the Finals Day. They made truly fantastic speeches and presentations representing Imperial."

Congratulations to Kevin, Xinlin, Olivia, Yuchen and Justin for their hard work and impressive results.