In Kazakh National University was held the 19th Japanese language speech contest dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Kazakhstan and Japan. Competition for masters of the artistic word is held annually since 1999.

The contest was organized by KazNU at Al-Farabi in cooperation with the Embassy of Japan in the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kazakh Association of Japanese Language Teachers, and with the support of the University of Tsukuba, the public organization "Terrakoya" and LLP "New & Rare Resources". Partners and sponsors were associations of Japanese businessmen in Kazakhstan, the Kazakhstan-Japan Center for Human Resource Development (KJC) and the Japan Foundation.

After the welcoming speech of the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Japan to the Republic of Kazakhstan, Kavabata Ichiro, Vice-rector for Academic Affairs of KazNU Askar Hikmetov wished the contestants good luck.  All participants of the event honored the memory of the victims of the devastating earthquake on March 11, 2011 with a minute of silence.

A total of 15 strongest students from Al-Farabi KazNU, The L.N.Gumilyov Eurasian National University, Kazakh Ablai Khan University of International Relations and World Languages ​​and the Kazakhstan-Japan Center for Human Resource Development in Almaty took part in the competition.

As a result of the competition, the student of the KJC A.Manova became the owner of the main prize - a trip to the Land of the Rising Sun. Students of the Faculty of Oriental Studies KazNU, the Department of the Far East were awarded honorable prizes. So, M. Umeshova awarded for II, A.Skatov for III, S.Bekzhanov - IV, A.Alimbetova - V, M.Bayytzhan - VI place in the speech contest. The participants, who won the first 4 places, won tickets for the 21st Central Asian Japanese speech contest, which will be held on April 29 in the Kyrgyz Republic.

A specifical feature of the competition this year was a special prize of Batyrkhan Kurmanseyt to a student of KazNU S. Bekzhanova. B. Kurmanseyt is a graduate of the Faculty of Oriental Studies of KazNU named after Al-Farabi, representative of the Japan International Friendly Exchange Council (FEC). During his student years, he actively participated in speech contests and repeatedly took first place in Kazakhstan, Central Asia and Moscow among the CIS countries, twice won the Japanese speech contest for foreign diplomats in Japan.

Department of the Far East