Bandar Seri Begawan - The winner of the recent 26th Japanese Speech Contest, Chua Wee Ming, leaves today for Tokyo, Japan, to participate in a weeklong Japanese speech presentation on October 18.

Chua, 24, won in the advanced category with his speech, "The Problem of Recycling". He will join 10 other winners from the 10 Asean member countries who will deliver their respective speeches in Japanese.

A Bachelor of Science graduate from the Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah Institute of Education (SHBIE), Chua works as an Assistant Auditor at Ernst & Young.

He said he is determined to do his best and woo the audience with his Japanese language skills.

The presentation will give him the opportunity to self-evaluate his skills and compare his level of skills with other participants, he said yesterday at the Embassy of Japan in Kiarong.

Chua studied Japanese part-time for six years. Initially, he joined his friends. Gradually, he built his interest in the language. Being in the recent contest made him gain in confidence as most of the contestants were full-time students in the language.

He joined the contest last year as recommended by his teacher during his study year but didn't do so well due to his nervousness.

Trying for the second time paid off when he won.

He said the trip and his presentation will help him to practice his public speaking in Japanese and write proper sentences in Japanese. He hopes to promote the Japanese language to Bruneians.

The Second Secretary at the Embassy of Japan, Mr Akira Ichioka, said that the main event would be conducted on October 18, 2012 in front of a big audience, including some members of the Embassy of Brunei Darussalam in Japan.

He said participants will be attending a two-day Japanese speaking skills workshop to improve their Japanese language skills. They will also visit places of interests in Tokyo.

The presentation is for showing their skills and also comparing their skills with other participants so that will encourage them to study more in the future, he said.

Organised by the Japan Overseas Enterprises Association, it support foreigners to speak Japanese so they can contribute like working for Japanese company overseas in Southeast Asia (SEA). The organisation wants to give the opportunity for SEA countries to learn the language and the interesting culture and society of Japan.

The contest has been hosted for 26 years. The sending of Bruneian to Japan begun over 10 years ago, and has been an annual activity

Mr Ichioka said the contest here was jointly organised by the Continuing Education Division of the Department of Technical Education and Language Centre of Universiti Brunei Darussalam.

He acknowledged the involvement of the Brunei-Japan Friendship Association, Japan-Brunei Friendship Association, The Japanese Association of Brunei Darussalam, The Japan Foundation, All Nippon Airways Co Ltd and Japan Overseas Enterprises Association.