April 21, 2017: Announcement of Winners of the 25th National Japan Bowl®

CHEVY CHASE, M.D. – The National Japan Bowl® celebrated its 25^th anniversary on April 6-7, 2017, at the National 4-H Center in Chevy Chase, Maryland. This year, 170 students from 28 high schools throughout the nation, as well as the national championship team from Mexico, came together to test their knowledge of Japanese language and culture.

The top Level 4 winners, Townsend Harris High School (New York) and Lake Braddock High School (Virginia), will travel to Japan this summer thanks to the generous support of the Mazda Foundation. In all, 23 students will be awarded a trip to Japan through the Kakehashi Project, a cultural exchange program administered by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The top 5 teams of each level are:

Level 2
1^st    Silver Creek High School, CA
2^nd   Thomas Jefferson High  School, VA
3^rd    Lynbrook High School, CA
4^th    Townsend Harris High School, NY
5^th    Shakopee High School, MN

Level 3
1^st    Lynbrook High School, CA
2^nd   Thomas Jefferson High School, VA
3^rd   Gretchen Whitney High School, CA
4^th   The Woodlands College Park High School, TX
5^th   Montgomery Blair High School, MD

Level 4
1^st   Townsend Harris High School, NY
1^st   Lake Braddock Secondary School, VA
3^rd   Eastview High School, MN
4^th   Stevenson School, CA
5^th   Northside College Prep School, IL

During the championship round, Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of Japan Atsuyuki Oike and Madam Nobuko Sasae, wife of the Japanese Ambassador to the United States, presented medals to the first place student teams at each level. JASWDC congratulates the winning teams of the 2017 National Japan Bowl, the West Coast Teacher’s Team, winners of the first-ever Teacher’s Round, and all participants.

About the Japan Bowl

Created and produced by the Japan-America Society of Washington DC, the National Japan Bowl is the premiere academic competition for high school students of Japanese. Since the first competition in 1993, the Japan Bowl has spread throughout the nation and the world, with regional competitions in the Pacific Northwest, California, Utah, Wisconsin, and Illinois, and international competitions in Poland, Italy, Mexico, England, Serbia, and Kyoto, Japan.

About the Japan-America Society

The Japan-America Society of Washington DC is a 501(c)(3) educational and cultural non-profit organization dedicated to strengthening the relationship between Japan and the U.S. at the grassroots public diplomacy level. Our programming aims to bring Japanese and American people closer together in the Nation’s Capital area.

Press Contacts

For more information, please contact Director of Japan Bowl Risa Kamio at [email protected].