The processing of videos is slower than I thought it would be, sorry for the slowness. This is a good debate to start with though. The last debate on the final day of the tour versus Sophia University was a huge suprise. First, it was in an intimate, private setting with only 5 observers, all of whom participate in the Japanese policy format they call “Academic Debate.” Secondly, it was the most American styled policy debate that happened on the tour. This was very surprising to me as the debate seemed very familiar. Finally, this debate really highlights some of the differences in Japanese “academic debate” and U.S. “policy debate.” The major difference is that academic debate accepts hypothesis testing as the only way to make a decision in a round. This becomes a nice moment of cultural communication between the teams over the counterplan in this round.
The topic was That the Japanese Government should encourage companies to introduce equal pay for equal work.