Sophia University Team Achieves Second Place at the 23rd Intercollegiate Negotiation Competition
Achieving the Best Performance Among Japanese Universities
The 23rd Intercollegiate Negotiation Competition, Sophia University has been one of the sponsors since 2009, was held over two days on November 16 and 17, 2024. This is a competition in which teams from Japanese and overseas universities compete in mock arbitration and negotiation conducted in either Japanese or English and has been held at Sophia University’s Yotsuya Campus since its start.
This year, approximately 300 participants from 20 universities in Japan and 9 international universities from countries such as Australia, South Korea, Singapore, Mongolia, China, and India competed on international business transactions on arts and were judged by over 150 domestic and international professionals and scholars.
Sophia University was represented by a team of 19 students from the Faculty of Law’s International Business Law Seminar. The team achieved the university’s best-ever performance, securing the second place overall out of 29 teams.
The competition results were as follows:
Champion: Team Australia
2nd Place: Sophia University
3rd Place: National University of Singapore
4th Place: The University of Tokyo
5th Place: Osaka University
Sophia University team also achieved the first place in Japanese negotiation. It was ranked in the second in the Japanese division (the total of arbitration and negotiation), following the University of Tokyo. In the English division, they ranked third overall, behind Team Australia and the National University of Singapore, making them the top-ranked Japanese university.
Karen Fukae, a fourth-year student from the Department of Law, shared her thoughts:
“This competition served as a culmination of the negotiation and arbitration studies we’ve undertaken over the past year in our seminar. It was a truly international event, with many universities from Japan and abroad. I am thrilled that we were able to achieve significant results by uniting as a team with shared goals. Negotiation and arbitration require not only making one’s case but also understanding the other party’s interests and considering the overall benefit. It is challenging to adapt to the other party’s approach, but through countless simulations and practices as a team, we developed a broader perspective and elevated our way of thinking. This experience will be invaluable in future dialogues with people from diverse backgrounds in society.”
Professor Tetsuro Morishita from the Faculty of Law, who guided the team, reflected: “I am incredibly proud that students who were initially hesitant to speak in front of people a year ago confidently debated their ideas before international students and judges, achieving such remarkable results. The students grew by engaging in countless discussions, sometimes clashing or even shedding tears, and worked together as a team to perform on this grand stage. I believe this experience will become a lasting treasure in their lives.”