In the 25th "Chinese Bridge" World Student Chinese Speaking Competition Japan Regional Preliminaries (Tokyo Venue) held on May 23, 2026, Ai Horike (2nd year) won 1st place in Group B and advanced to the National Finals as a representative of Eastern Japan.
At the National Finals held on June 14, Horike was awarded 3rd place in Group B, in recognition of the high level of language proficiency and rich expressiveness demonstrated through the Chinese speech.
Under the theme "My Two Cultural Lives (我的两种文化生活)," Horike introduced personal experiences of having both Japanese and Chinese cultural backgrounds. The speech powerfully expressed the importance of multicultural understanding in Chinese, discussing the perspectives and lessons gained specifically from growing up within different cultures.