New England Japanese speech contest sponsored by Japanese consulate of Boston was discontinued after Japanese recession during late 1990’s. There was no Japanese speech contest in the New England area for a while. Boston Area Japanese Speech Event was restarted in 2001 at Wellesley College after Prof. Morley suggested. Yoshimi Maeno acts as a facilitator of the event. We started out with five universities and colleges including Wellesley College, Brandeis University, Harvard University, MIT, Boston University. The most recent event included 8 colleges and universities with additional three universities and colleges including Boston College, Williams College, and Tufts University. Every year participating colleges and universities take turns hosting the event. It is not a contest. This event gives all the participants a chance to present their effort on their continuing Japanese study. All the participants receive gift certificates to a Japanese bookstore. Each university or college prepares its own gift certificates for their participants.
