The Lanka Japan Friendship Society (LJFS) held their Presentation of Awards Ceremony on 15th Jan 2018 to present awards to the winners of the All Island Inter School Essay Competition (AIISEC) 2017 on the subject: “Japanese Success story – Lessons for Sri Lanka), at the Sasakawa Auditorium, Colombo 3.

The Chief Guest for the occasion was His Excellency Kenichi Suganuma, Ambassador for Japan in Sri Lanka.
Mr. Rajah Sinnathuray, President, Mr. Sumana Liyanage, Project Chairman, Mr. Chandra Jayatilleka, General Secretary and His Excellency Suganama, addressed the gathering.

18 students were awarded prizes and certificates and the following were the award winners of the 1st prize/Gold category:

1) Ms. Ruwani Sashikala Perera of Bandaragama Central College – Sinhala Medium
2) Ms. Lishani Devaraja of Pakkiyam National College, Matale – Tamil Medium
3) Mr. K.M.P.N. de Silva of Mahinda College, Galle – English Medium

The Judges were: Dr. M. Saman Dassanayake, Faculty of Management & Finance, University of Colombo (Sinhala medium); Mr. M. Senthilnathan, COO, Express Newspapers Ceylon (Pvt) Ltd., (Tamil medium) and Mr. G. Wijesiri, Former Ambassador to Japan (English medium).
Scholarships were also presented by His Excellency to Mr. Jayasanka Dissanayake and Mr. B.A. Dhameera Indumal to study Japanese language at the Japanese Language Education Association.