Yuichi Yoshioka was crowned the winner of the second Japan Times Spelling Bee, held at The Japan Times headquarters in Tokyo in May last year, after he correctly spelled the word "presentient," landing a spot in the annual Scripps National Spelling Bee contest the following month in the U.S.
Yoshioka, who was 12 at the time and attended Global Indian International School in Tokyo, beat out 19 representatives from other schools across Japan to win the May 14 contest. The event, originally scheduled on March 12, had been postponed for two months due to the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake.
"I can't believe this," Yoshioka, whose mother is from the Philippines and father is Japanese, said after receiving a trophy from U.S. Ambassador John Roos.