Circular Yokohama joins Yokohama National University as a Hult Prize sponsor

Circular Yokohama participated in the 2022 Hult Prize held in Yokohama National University as a sponsor company.

Hult Prize is the world’s largest business competition for university students, also named as the “Nobel Prize for students” by media sources worldwide. The competition is held annually with the aim of promoting SDGs initiatives and fostering entrepreneurship among students. More than 1 million students from 121 countries have participated.

The competition begins with the “OnCampus Program (campus competition),” where teams from each university compete against each other, and the teams selected from the campus competition will advance to the “Regional Summits (national competition),” in which representative teams from each university gather. The selected national teams will be qualified to participate in the Global Accelerator Program, an 8-week intensive business course starting in June. Finally, the teams will compete in the “Global Finals” held in September, where representatives from each country will compete for the championship.

Circular Yokohama and our sister media Zenbird streamed an Instagram live with the Hult Prize foundation before the campus competition of Yokohama National University. Circular Yokohama editor Rina and Zenbird editor-in-chief Roger appeared and introduced each other’s activities to share their experiences and ideas towards an inclusive society.

The Yokohama National University campus competition was held online on March 12, 2022, with four teams entered. This year’s call to action is “getting the world back to work”; to build a business that will employ at least 2,000 people by 2024 while creating a positive impact on the world. Against the backdrop of the increase in the number of people who have lost their jobs due to COVID-19. Circular Yokohama Editor-in-Chief Momoko and four others judged the competition and selected the winning team from the Yokohama National University competition.

On the event, each of the four teams presented their ideas: an application that matches young people with companies in need of successors; a matching service that allows retirees to take care of children when needed; the transformation of a rural village into a smart city; and a well-being café that employs people with disabilities. As a result of the judgement, the team that presented the wellbeing café idea won the competition.

As a result of the judgment, the team that presented the well-being café idea won the competition.

Campus Director of Hult Prize in Yokohama National University commented; “I think being part of Hult Prize as a Japanese university means a lot not only for us students but also to the community. It could be the trigger for business ideas that could help the economy and sustainability goes hand in hand.” The Hult Prize is held every year, and the foundation is hoping to have more Japanese universities next year and beyond.

Article originally published on Circular Yokohama.