The contest was initiated by the late Hiromasa Suzuki who was granted permission by the late Prince Takamado to establish Japan National Student Association Fund with the Prince as Honorary Patron. Composed of some 60 students of universities in and around the Tokyo metropolitan area, the JNSA has been administering the contest for over 60 years, now with Princess Takamado as Honorary Patron. Yomiuri Shimbun has been the co-sponsor and co-organizer, and the major supporter has been Coca-Cola Japan.
The contest is the oldest and the largest in scale in Japan, with some 100,000 junior high school students participating to win in the final contest held in Tokyo. The first prize winner receives \1,000,000 high school scholarship.
Japan-U.S. Student Congress is part of the activities of JNSA.