Competition · Online
A national essay contest run by the Government of Japan's Headquarters for the Abduction Issue, inviting junior high and high school students to write about the abduction of Japanese citizens by North Korea in Japanese or English. Top winners are honoured by the Minister in charge and invited on a study visit to an abduction site in Niigata.
Students learn about the abduction issue from the government's resources and express their own views and feelings in an essay with a title of their choosing. Essays: up to 1,200 Japanese characters or about 500 English words; original, unpublished work only, and AI-written text is prohibited. Each of the Junior High and High School divisions has 1 Grand Prize, 2 Excellence Awards and 3 Special Awards, plus about 10 school group awards. Grand Prize and Excellence winners receive the Minister's award and an invitation (travel and accommodation paid by the Cabinet Secretariat) to a site visit in Niigata City. The contest was renamed from the junior high/high school essay contest to its current name in FY2026.