The 37th Ito En Oi Ocha New Haiku Award, Japan’s largest creative haiku contest, will begin accepting submissions on Monday, November 3rd (national holiday)! Winning entries will be featured on Oi Ocha packaging! Ito En New Haiku Award Secretariat Press Release: October 31, 2025 The 37th Ito En Oi Ocha New Haiku Grand Prize, Japan’s largest creative haiku contest, will begin accepting submissions on Monday, November 3rd (national holiday)! Winning entries will be featured on Oi Ocha packaging! ITO EN, Ltd. (President and CEO: Daisuke Honjo; Headquarters: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo) will begin accepting submissions for the 37th ITO EN Oi Ocha New Haiku Award, Japan’s largest creative haiku contest, on Monday, November 3, 2025 (national holiday). The deadline is Saturday, February 28, 2026 (postmark/send valid on the same day). The “Ito En Oi Ocha New Haiku Award” is a contest open to anyone, free to express their feelings and thoughts in a free-flowing 5-7-5 rhythm, without being bound by seasonal words or fixed forms. The 36th contest received nearly 1.85 million entries from
approximately 490,000 people, bringing the total number of entries to 47.3 million. Since its launch in 1989, the contest has continued to be beloved by many as Japan’s largest haiku contest in terms of the number of entries. The judges are not only leading haiku experts, but also experts from a variety of fields, including photography and literature. Therefore, many entries are selected that capture everyday moments from the unique perspective of not only seasoned haiku enthusiasts, but also beginners, with fresh, innovative ideas. The 1,000 winners of the Honorable Mention Special Award and above will receive a special “Oi Ocha” bottle featuring their winning entry. In addition, one winner of the highest award, the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Award, will receive a prize of 500,000 yen, and one winner of the Kaneko Kota Award and six winners of the Grand Prize in each category will receive 200,000 yen. The New Haiku Award website (https://itoen-shinhaiku.jp
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/11926/46/11926-46-0b6bc46b5cdc6be389ef2ff7dacf32e6-1362×1095.png “Oi Ocha” features works that have won the 36th Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Award. 〈36th Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Award: A Frozen Star and a Job That Won’t Go Down in History Ami Karin, 15, Osaka Prefecture 36th Kaneko Kota Award: Keeping a Whale in a Sea of Emotions Yano Keisuke, 45, Okayama Prefecture *Ages are as of the time of application. *For details, please refer to the ITO EN New Haiku Award website (https://itoen-shinhaiku.jp). ■Application categories (6 categories) “Elementary School Division (including infants)”, “Junior High School Division”, “High School Division”, “General Division A (under 40)”, “General Division B (40 and over)” “English Haiku Division” ■Application details ●Application period Monday, November 3, 2025 (national holiday) to Saturday, February 28, 2026 (postmark on the day of submission is valid) ●How to apply Submit up to 6 haiku in both Japanese and English by submitting a dedicated application postcard or via the internet. (If you would like to use the dedicated application postcard, please contact the Shin Haiku Award Secretariat.) ●Application address Postcard: 3-23 Kioicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-8553 “Ito En Oi Ocha New Haiku Award” Department TEL: 03-3264-4050 (Hours of operation: 10:00 – 18:00 *Excluding Saturdays, Sundays, holidays, and the New Year’s holiday period) Website: ●Prizes (1,000 winners, 4,000 selected winners Total of 5,000 winners) Prizes: For Japanese haiku, one person will receive the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Award (500,000 yen prize and additional prize), one person will receive the Kaneko Kota Award (200,000 yen prize and additional prize), one person will receive the Grand Prize in each category (6 people in total, 200,000 yen prize and additional prize), 44 people will receive the Excellence Award, 10 people will receive the Jury Award, 9 people will receive the Supporting Organization Award, and 929 people will receive the Special Honorable Mention Award. A total of 1,000 works will be featured on “Oi Ocha” packaging. Selected (Honorable Mention): 4,000 people will receive a certificate of award regardless of category. ●Announcement The 5,000 winning and selected haiku poems will be announced on the ITO EN website in late October 2026 (planned). Winners will be notified by mail or email only if they are selected. In addition, the 1,000 winning haiku poems will be published sequentially on the packaging of the “Oi Ocha” brand from spring 2027 onwards. ●Judges (in alphabetical order, titles omitted) Japanese Haiku: Asai Shinpei (Photographer), Anzai Atsushi (Haiku Poet), Ito Seiko (Writer/Creator), Kindaichi Hideho (Japanese Language Scholar), Kamino Saki (Haiku Poet), Natsui Itsuki (Haiku Poet), Hotta Tokiha (Haiku Poet/Literary Artist), Miyabe Miyuki (Writer) English Haiku: Arthur Binard (Poet), Kimura Satoshio (Haiku Poet/English Literature Scholar)
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/11926/46/11926-46-9afb169d8c32f9efefe5d80bb0190f83-3900×1683.png 37th final judge About the Ito En Oi Ocha New Haiku Award ・Background to the Project 1989 (Heisei 1), the fifth year since Ito En’s successful launch of the world’s first canned green tea, marked the 300th anniversary of Matsuo Basho’s “Oku no Hosomichi” (The Narrow Road to the Deep North). This marked a quiet boom in haiku. The previous year, sales of Tawara Machi’s “Salad Anniversary” reached 2.6 million copies. Around this time, haiku and tanka became increasingly popular at cultural centers, sparking renewed interest in the world of traditional short-form poetry. However, many participants were beginners and had limited opportunities to present their work, leading to a growing desire to share their own work with the world. Against this background, Ito En, which deals in green tea, a product nurtured by Japanese culture, began considering a project to see if it could contribute to the general public who love haiku, a traditional Japanese culture.
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/11926/46/11926-46-28cfc984dfe049b2f7402c376e1d7a78-94×183.png Canned Sencha
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/11926/46/11926-46-00d3d645072097609a36a11f4a86cbca-232×178.png Oi Ocha Can ・ Project Concept ■ “New Haiku” that uses free themes to express inner landscapes in a 5-7-5 rhythm Haiku values its own detailed conventions (seasonal words, fixed forms, etc.). However, there are many wonderful haiku poems that do not follow these rules. Expressions that are not bound by rules are easy for beginners to tackle, and at the same time, they can compete on an equal footing with veterans in terms of “expressive ability.” Thus, the “Ito En Oi Ocha New Haiku Award” was born, eliminating creative restrictions as much as possible and allowing for free expression in the 5-7-5 rhythm. In order to judge the entries from a wide range of new perspectives and not be bound by traditional haiku styles, we have asked leading haiku poets as well as people from a variety of fields, such as photography, novels, music, and literature, to serve as judges. ■ Prize-winning works will be featured on “Oi Ocha” packaging Ito En’s “Oi Ocha” is enjoyed by many people across the country, and its packaging can also be used as media. “Oi Ocha,” a Japanese tea beverage brand launched in 1989 (Heisei 1), was developed by Ito En to allow people to enjoy delicious green tea anytime, anywhere. We felt that “Shin Haiku,” which places no creative restrictions, was a perfect fit for “Oi Ocha.” We believe that opening up our product packaging as a platform for the presentation of short, concise expressions is a new cultural activity that matches the modern era. ・Reaction and Contribution of the Shin Haiku Award The number of entries for the first contest was 41,373. The most recent, 36th contest, saw a total of 1,845,983,000, bringing the cumulative total to approximately 47.3 million. One of the key features of Shin Haiku is that many of the entries are from people composing haiku for the first time. At the same time, the Shin Haiku Award has established itself as a platform for experienced haiku enthusiasts to find new ways to enjoy haiku. Recently, television programs featuring haiku have become popular, and interest in haiku is growing among junior and senior high school students, who previously had little contact with haiku, and other younger generations. Educational institutions are also taking an interest in haiku creation as a way to pass on Japanese culture. Furthermore, Oi Ocha is enjoyed not only in Japan but around the world. Oi Ocha has received submissions from overseas to the New Haiku Award from a total of 103 countries, and the product has also garnered attention as “HAIKU.” Aiming to become a global tea company, ITO EN hopes to promote the development of Japan’s traditional beverage, green tea, overseas, and to protect and spread Japanese culture through haiku, another traditional part of Japanese culture, and to share it with society at large.
