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 11th intercollegiate negotiation competition was held at Sophia University in Tokyo, December 1st and 2nd, 2012. This year’s competition featured students from 18 schools: Osaka University, Gakushuin University, Kyushu University, Kyoto University, Keio University, Sophia University, Chuo University, University of Tokyo, Tohoku University, Doshisha University, Nagoya University, Hitotsubashi University, Hokkaido University, Ritsumeikan University, Waseda University, Nihon University and a combined team of the Australian National University and The University of Sydney. In total, 247 undergraduate and graduate students from these 18 universities performed enthusiastically.

The competition has two major parts, “arbitration” (Round 1), and “negotiation” (Round 2), with each part having both a Japanese version and an English version. Each team was divided into two sides, the Red company, which played the role of a restaurant management, agricultural production and sales company in the fictional country of Negoland, and the Blue company, which played the role of a supermarket and fast food management company in Arbitria, a neighboring country of Negoland.

They had concluded contract discussions which involved making a restaurant which features products such as high quality vegetables and chicken from the Red company, while the Blue company will be the master franchisee of the chain and expand the franchise business in Arbitria. However, during the contract negotiations, the following four problems came up.