Registration for the 29th National Japan Bowl is now closed.

If you are a student or teacher and have further inquiries about competing this year, please email [email protected].

We are planning for the 29th National Japan Bowl under the assumption that travel will not yet be safe, and so the competition will be held online again, making it “Digital Japan Bowl II.” While it is disappointing that we will not be able to gather together in person again, we hope that teams who are typically unable to travel to DC to compete will be able to join us online. We are excited to welcome teams back to the Digital Japan Bowl and can promise the online competition will be even better than before!

Important Dates

Friday, December 31, 2020*                       Deadline for Early Bird Registration

Friday, January 29, 2021*                            Deadline for Receipt of All Applications

Monday, February 22, 2021                       Tech tests begin

Friday, March 19, 2021                                Deadline for student/chaperone substitutes

Thursday/Friday April 8-9, 2021               National Japan Bowl Competition

*Registration deadlines have been pushed back by two weeks to accommodate for technical issues with the Japan Bowl website.

Registration Information

The registration guide, registration link, and other information can be found on the Japan Bowl website http://www.japanbowl.org/join-the-29th-national-japan-bowl/). The competition guide will be updated to reflect the expanded format of the competition, and will be uploaded soon.

The Competition Guide (which outlines the rules of the competition) will be uploaded in January 2021. For a general idea of how the Digital Japan Bowl will be held online, please reference the 2020 Competition Guide.

Changes for the 2021 Competition

  1. We are pleased to expand the competition back to its two-day format for 2021. This will include the conversation round and the preliminary round returning to 90 questions.
  2. We will be changing the platform from Zoom to Hopin. Hopin will allow for participants more freedom to interact with each other, and will allow for networking events with other Japan Bowl participants as well as students in Japan. Students will also be able to more easily join whichever cultural activities they wish, visit expo booths where university representatives and sponsors can directly engage with them, and more!
  3. Registration will be handled using Active again this year. Once all registrations for a school are complete, we will send participants information on how to register on Hopin and will schedule a tech test. Please refer to the Registration Guide for details on how to register, and don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions about registration.
  4. If you submit your registration before Friday, December 31st, 2020, the registration fee for one chaperone from your school will be waived. Please use the coupon code “CHAPERONE65” when you register to receive this discount.
  5. The conversation round this year will change in format, and scores from it will no longer be included in a team’s preliminary round score. Instead, awards will be given out to students in each room who impress the conversation round judges. For more information, please see the Study Guide and the Competition Guide (forthcoming).

For questions, please contact us at [email protected].