Excited teenagers converged in Yoyogi on the 24th and 25th of March for the 8th all Japan High School Parliamentary Debate Union’s national debate tournament. This tournament was the culmination of a year of hard work and practice for high school teams from Okinawa to Hokkaido. Teams had to place as the first or second best team in their regional tournaments before being allowed to compete at the national level. Shibumaku’s debate team (Sena, Ryota and Goki) placed first in the Chiba regional tournament with 4 wins and 0 losses. Goki unfortunately had to pull out and was replaced with club vice president Rina and this new team would go on to win the national tournament with a perfect 7 wins and 0 loss record, a feat unmatched by any other team in the country.
This tournament was bittersweet as this victory marked the end of Ryota’s high school debating career but for second year students, Sena, Goki and Rina, another year of debating and opportunities to excel still remains. In the meantime, the HPDU cup which previously resided on the campus of last year’s winner, Shibushibu, now has a place of pride in the Principal’s office here at Shibumaku. We can look forward to the defense of the cup in next year’s national tournament.