The Japan Times held their fourth annual spelling bee on Saturday, March 23rd and Daichi Hayakawa from Katoh Gakuen was crowned national spelling bee champion. He will now represent Japan in the US National Spelling Bee contest to be held in Washington, D.C. at the end of this month.
The contestants for the spelling bee contest came from 42 schools from across the country to compete for a chance to qualify for the finals in the United States. The students were aged 9 to 14 and they attend international, Japanese, and U.S. military-based schools.
This was Daichi’s second time competing in the Japanese national spelling bee championships. Before the contest he was quoted as saying, “I am looking forward to doing better than last year at The Japan Times Spelling Bee.”
The contest went an incredible 45 rounds, with words like “eschewal,” “tattersall,” and “syntrophism” put forward. Daichi won the championship with the correct spelling of “metamorphosis.” The school is so proud of him and wishes him good luck in Washington, D.C! — JOANNA POLIKAITIS
