Support for the Intercollegiate Negotiation Competition

The Sumitomo Group Public Affairs Committee strives to support college students’ negotiation skills, assist in upgrading higher education, and contribute to global human resource development through the Intercollegiate Negotiation Competition.

The 14th Intercollegiate Negotiation Competition was held at Sophia University in Tokyo, November 21st and 22nd, 2015.

This year’s competition featured students from 15 schools from all over Japan: Hokkaido University, Tohoku University, University of Tokyo, Hitotsubashi University, Waseda University, Keio University, Sophia University, Chuo University, Gakushuin University, Nihon University, Kyoto University, Doshisha University, Ritsumeikan University, Osaka University, and Kyushu University. There were also a combined team including four Australian universities; The Australian National University, The University of Sydney, The University of Melbourne and The Monash University, The University of Hong Kong and The National University of Singapore. In total, 251 undergraduate and graduate students (175 students competing in Japanese and 76 students competing in English), from these 21 universities, all enthusiastically performed and competed with each other throughout.


Shinmori Kenji, Representative of the Sumitomo Group Public Affairs Committee


Masami Nishimura, business group leader of Sumitomo Osaka Cement


Yoshiaki Nomura from Osaka University speaks to the competitors during the opening ceremony.

Left: The championship cup, which was given to the previous champion.
Right: The championship cup that is awarded for one year and returned by previous champions to be awarded to the current winner.

Pairing
<Japanese>
Round A/arbitration Round B/negotiation
Red Blue Red Blue
1 Hokkaido1 Hitotsubashi1 Sophia1 Chuo3
2 Nihon2 Hitotsubashi3 Doshisha1 Tokyo2
3 Waseda2 Chuo1 Waseda1 Hitotsubashi1
4 Doshisha1 Gakushuin2 Kyoto1 Ritsumeikan
5 Waseda3 Australia Sophia2 Gakushuin1
6 Sophia3 Hitotsubashi2 Waseda2 Tokyo3
7 Nihon1 Chuo3 Kyushu2 Gakushuin2
8 Hokkaido2 Tohoku1 Waseda3 Tohoku1
9 Sophia4 Tokyo2 Sophia3 Osaka2
10 Hongkong Chuo2 Hongkong Hitotsubashi3
11 Waseda1 Gakushuin1 Nihon1 Tokyo1
12 Kyoto2 Osaka2 Hokkaido2 Keio
13 Kyushu2 Tokyo1 Doshisha2 Hitotsubashi2
14 Kyushu1 Ritsumeikan Sophia4 Australia
15 Sophia1 Tohoku2 Nihon2 Tohoku2
16 Kyoto1 Tokyo3 Kyushu1 Osaka1
17 Sophia2 Keio Kyoto2 Chuo1
18 Doshisha2 Osaka1 Hokkaido1 Chuo2


<English>
Round A/arbitration Round B/negotiation
Red Blue Red Blue
1 Singapore Keio Kyushu2 Chuo
2 Sophia Ritsumeikan Kyoto Australia
3 Kyushu1 Hitotsubashi Kyushu1 Keio
4 Kyushu2 Australia Hongkong Osaka
5 Kyoto Tohoku Singapore Hitotsubashi
6 Doshisha Chuo Sophia Tokyo
7 Hongkong Tokyo Doshisha Tohoku
8 Waseda Osaka Waseda Ritsumeikan


Problem establishment and competition outline (Red vs. Blue companies)

The competition is separated into two major parts, Round A which is the “arbitration” round, and a Round B which serves as the “negotiation” portion, with each part having both a Japanese and English version. Each team was divided into two sides, the Red company in the fictional country of Negoland and the Blue company in Arbitria, a neighboring country of Negoland. The competition is based on the negotiated business between both companies.

The Red company is a property developer for office buildings, housing construction, urban development, and building management. They use the latest technology and manage everything from the execution of the design to the supervision of the construction, with the motto, “Friendly designs for people, in harmony with the environment”. On the other side, the Blue company is a major financial institution which runs commercial and investment banking. They have many branches all over the world and have subsidiary companies, which specialize in a derivative contracts and Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A).

On the first day during Round A, the teams aimed to resolve various challenges through "Arbitration" and very passionately argued on the three cases. The points of the discussions were “the headquarters building case”, which was a conflict over the construction of the headquarters building of the Blue company, “the financing case “, which concerned financing for the Red company, and “the Investment case” which was a conflict over the mergers and acquisitions investments by the Red company. On the second day in Round B, during the "Negotiation" portion of the competition, they debated on an agreement for the development project of a special economic zone. The Red company performed as the developer and the Blue company performed as the financial institution as well as the government agent.

It was training for a negotiation in a real business format which looked and felt extremely accurate comparable to a real world negotiation in all cases.


Negotiations in Japanese


Negotiations in English

Judges

Every year, this competition receives assistance from many people and groups in judicial circles, professionals from each of the participating universities as well as the Judicial Affairs Divisions of various corporations who serve as judges for the competition. The comments from the judges after the enthusiastic performances have always been a wonderful opportunity for students to receive valuable feedback and grow from the guidance of these professionals. Also recently, the numbers of both male and female alumni of the competition has been growing and now these former competitors serve as judges and staff for the competition, adding to the continued success and growth of the event.



Results of the 14th Intercollegiate Negotiation Competition

The awards ceremony is always tense and every year contains drama surrounding the announcement of prizes to the delight of the winning team or to the disappointment of the team that was not able to achieve its goal. This year, the National University of Singapore, which was in its first year of competition, became the champion while Osaka University won the prize for best teamwork. Also the teams with the highest score in the English competition were Waseda University for “arbitration” and the National University of Singapore for the “negotiation” round.

The final results for 2015 are as follows:

The 1st prize :  National University of Singapore   328.5 points
The 2nd prize :  University of Tokyo   324.625 points
The 3rd prize :  Osaka University   321.333 points
The 4th prize :  Kyoto University   312.5 points
The 5th prize :  Hitotsubashi University   307.25 points

The Best Teamwork Award:

Osaka University

Highest score for the English competition:

Arbitration :  Waseda University
Negotiation :  National University of Singapore


The official presentation of championship cup to two members of the National University of Singapore team.

National University of Singapore, winners of the 14th Intercollegiate Negotiation Competition celebrate on stage.

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