15th | Sponsorship of the Intercollegiate Negotiation Competition | Sponsorships | About Public Affairs Committee

Sponsorship of the Intercollegiate Negotiation Competition

The Sumitomo Group Public Affairs Committee enthusiastically supports the education of university students. We are especially keen to help offer students opportunities to enhance their negotiation skills while also fostering people with international perspectives. Our sponsorship of the Intercollegiate Negotiation Competition is a fine example of the contribution we seek to make by nurturing future leaders.

On December 3 and 4, 2016, the 15th Intercollegiate Negotiation Competition (INC) was held at Sophia University in Tokyo.

The contestants were 235 undergraduate and graduate students (151 students competing in Japanese and 84 students competing in English) from 19 universities. 15 Japanese universities participated: Hokkaido University, Tohoku University, University of Tokyo, Hitotsubashi University, Waseda University, Sophia University, Chuo University, Gakushuin University, Nihon University, Nagoya University, Kyoto University, Doshisha University, Ritsumeikan University, Osaka University, and Kyushu University. Participating from overseas were Team Australia (representing the Australian National University and the University of Sydney), the University of Hong Kong (HKU), and the National University of Singapore (NUS).

Yoshiaki Nomura, Professor of Osaka University and Chair of INC Steering Committee, speaking at the opening ceremony.

Kenji Shinmori, Representative of the Sumitomo Group Public Affairs Committee

Tournament chart

<Japanese>

	Round A/arbitration		Round B/negotiation
	Red	Blue	Red	Blue
1	Waseda 1	Sophia 1	Kyushu 2	Hitotsubashi 2
2	Hokkaido 1	HKU 1	Waseda 1	Tohoku 2
3	Chuo 3	Tohoku 1	Hokkaido 2	Doshisha 1
4	Kyushu 1	Nihon 2	Chuo 3	Hitotsubashi 1
5	Tokyo 1	Hitotsubashi 1	Waseda 2	Sophia 2
6	Waseda 2	Nihon 1	Nagoya	Hitotsubashi 3
7	Gakushuin 1	Hitotsubashi 3	Kyoto	Nihon 2
8	Gakushuin 2	Sophia 2	Kyushu 1	HKU 1
9	Hokkaido 2	Tohoku 2	Chuo 1	Nihon 1
10	Kyoto	HKU 2	Tokyo 2	Tohoku 1
11	Chuo 2	Doshisha 1	Waseda 3	Ritsumeikan
12	Nagoya	Ritsumeikan	Gakushuin 1	HKU 2
13	Kyushu 2	Doshisha 2	Tokyo 1	Sophia 3
14	Tokyo 2	Osaka	Gakushuin 2	Doshisha 2
15	Chuo 1	Sophia 3	Hokkaido 1	Sophia 1
16	Waseda 3	Hitotsubashi 2	Chuo 2	Osaka

<English>

	Round A/arbitration		Round B/negotiation
	Red	Blue	Red	Blue
1	Kyushu 1	NUS	Team Australia	Sophia 2
2	Waseda 1	Osaka	Kyushu 2	Tohoku
3	Kyushu 2	Sophia 2	Tokyo	HKU 2
4	Team Australia	Hitotsubashi	Nagoya 1	Doshisha
5	Waseda 2	Doshisha	Waseda 2	NUS
6	Chuo	HKU 1	Kyushu 1	Osaka
7	Kyoto	Sophia 1	Nagoya 2	Sophia 1
8	Tokyo	Ritsumeikan	Waseda 1	Hong Kong 1
9	Nagoya 2	HKU 2	Chuo	Ritsumeikan
10	Nagoya 1	Tohoku	Kyoto	Hitotsubashi

The Problem and the Competition Outline

The competition consists of two parts, Round A devoted to arbitration and Round B devoted to negotiation, with each part having both Japanese and English divisions.

Teams discuss transactions as the protagonists of two fictional companies from fictional countries: Red Corporation of Negoland and Blue Corporation of Arbitria.

Red Corp., a listed company headquartered in Negotown, the capital of Negoland, is engaged in two principal businesses: the manufacture and retail of apparel and the provision of care services for the elderly. Based on its corporate credo, “Make people happy by offering inexpensive clothing of great quality,” Red has earned a reputation as a reliable source of quality products. Its good name spurred continuing vigorous growth of the company’s business as the store network expanded, centering on Negotown and other major cities. Red subsequently launched a business offering care services for the elderly and currently operates 900 private nursing homes and 600 serviced residential facilities.

Blue is a listed company headquartered in Abu-Abu, the capital of Arbitria. Blue operates “Blue Village,” an online retailer of clothing. Applying know-how gained through Blue Village, Blue expanded into Negoland by opening “Blue Village Negoland,” a sister website targeting consumers in Negoland. Blue also expanded into robotics and currently offers a lineup of robots targeting four key applications: transport robots, robots for cleaning tasks, wearable robots for care support, and assistive wearable robots for workplace task execution.

In Round A on the first day, the teams endeavored to resolve the “Lucky-bag Case,” the “Alpha Case,” and the “Robot Case” through arbitration. In Round B on the second day, the teams negotiated about the robots to be jointly developed by Red and Blue, focusing on three key issues: the type of robots to be developed, the ownership of intellectual property rights in and to the robots to be developed, and the period during which Red may use the robots exclusively in Negoland. In both Round A and Round B, contestants were well prepared and engaged in animated debate as if doing real business.

Judges

Every year INC benefits from the cooperation extended by many people, including legal professionals, academics, and corporate legal staff. They serve as judges and provide commentary on the teams handling of the issues. For contestants, this feedback from the judges is both illuminating and stimulating, contributing to their personal development. Increasingly, judges and staff are drawn from the growing ranks of INC alumni.

Results of the 15th Intercollegiate Negotiation Competition

Team Australia, the winners of the first prize

The awards ceremony always has an element of high drama. On the one hand, there is the delight of the winning team, and on the other hand, the disappointment of the runners-up. The drama attests to the commitment and enthusiasm of the contestants. The winners of the first prize were Team Australia. The National University of Singapore won the Best Teamwork Award. The teams with the highest score in the competition in English were the National University of Singapore for arbitration and Team Australia for negotiation.

The final results for 2016 are as follows:

1st prize	Team Australia	328 points
2nd prize	National University of Singapore	323.5 points
3rd prize	Osaka University	310.25 points
4th prize	Sophia University	308.1 points
5th prize	Hitotsubashi University	304.75 points
5th prize	Kyoto University	304.75 points

Best Teamwork Award:

National University of Singapore

Highest score for the competition in English:

Arbitrary: National University of Singapore
Negotiation: Team Australia