Press Release No. 12/312

Press Release: Winners of the 2012 IMF Essay Contest in Japan

September 14, 2012

The International Monetary Fund (IMF), together with the Ministry of Finance of Japan and the Bank of Japan, announced the results of a Student Essay Contest that was held recently. The aim of the contest was to engage with Japanese youth, in the run-up to the 2012 IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings, which will be held in Tokyo October 9–14.

A total of 96 essays were submitted by students from Japan and abroad on the theme of “Youth Perspectives on the Global Economy and the Role of the IMF”. The winners, together with students from China, Korea, Singapore, and Thailand will participate in a Youth Dialogue with IMF Deputy Managing Director Nemat Shafik during the Annual Meetings in Tokyo. The event will be moderated by Ms. Saki Yagi, newscaster of News Zero, Nippon Television Network Corporation.

Students from the University of Tokyo, Hitotsubashi University, Kanazawa University, Nagoya University, Keio University, and Waseda University, among others, participated in the contest. “I really enjoyed the inspiring remarks and the excellent command of English demonstrated by the eight finalists of the essay contest,” said Mr. Tomoyuki Fukumoto, Associate Director-General, International Department, Bank of Japan. “Their performance convinced me of the great potential of the Japanese youth in the international community.”

“I sincerely hope that the young people, who will be the main players in the future of Japan, will have the opportunity to directly feel the energy of the 2012 Annual Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank Group. Through this essay contest, I was strongly encouraged that Japan has so many promising youth,” said Mr. Hiroshi Naka, Secretary-General at the Japan Secretariat for the 2012 Annual Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank Group, from the Ministry of Finance.

The three winners of the 2012 IMF Essay contest are: Ms. Tomoko Kaida, an undergraduate student of International Studies at Kanazawa University; Mr. Kenji Nakada, an undergraduate economics student at the University of Tokyo; and Mr. Daisuke Gatanaga, an undergraduate chemistry student at Yale University.

In addition to the three winners, other finalists included: Ms. Yumeka Hirano, Nagoya University; Mr. Yuta Mizutani, Tokyo University of Technology; Ms. Yuzuha Oka, the University of Tokyo; Mr. Kodai Okano, Osaka University; and Ms. Nao Yonemoto, Tokyo Woman’s Christian University.

The three winners of the 2012 IMF Essay contest also will be invited to attend the 2013 IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington, D.C., as part of the IMF Youth Fellowship program. See here for more information about the essay contest results.