Poetry Contest Japan 2026, Any Language, Judged
Quick answer: A monthly poetry contest open to poets in Japan. Haiku, tanka, free verse or English poems, every entry scored on 5 criteria with a certificate. Enter by the 25th.
Japan gave the world its shortest great poems. The haiku of Basho and Shiki, the tanka line that runs unbroken from the Manyoshu to Machi Tawara's bestselling Salad Anniversary, and a living newspaper culture where readers still submit verse weekly. What Japan's poets rarely get is a judged international contest that runs monthly, accepts Japanese, and explains its scoring.
This one does all three. Poems in Japanese are as welcome as poems in English, haiku and tanka are judged as seriously as free verse, and every entry is read blind against five published criteria: creativity, emotion, structure, language and theme. The full breakdown returns to the poet with the results, days after the deadline.
Entries close on the 25th of every month, which reaches Japan at about 3:30 in the morning on the 26th, so the 25th itself is the writing day. Results arrive by the 30th, winners are paid through PayPal, which serves Japan directly, and every entrant receives a certificate carrying their name and the title Writorian. Every right to the poem stays with its author.
Writory is a monthly international poetry contest poets in Japan can enter online in Japanese or English, with cash prizes for winners and a certificate plus a five criteria score for every entrant.
Why enter
- Twelve deadlines a year instead of one, so a finished poem never waits a season for a reading.
- Every entrant is told how the poem scored on creativity, emotion, structure, language and theme, in Japanese poetry culture where selection usually comes with no explanation at all.
- One poem costs $5, with no society membership or magazine subscription required first.
- Haiku, tanka and senryu are judged as complete poems, not curiosities, alongside free verse and everything else.
- Duotrope and Christopher Fielden's international competition list both carry Writory, so the contest can be verified before any money changes hands.
What winners and entrants receive
- Winners are paid cash prizes every month, twelve times a year, with the month's top ten named on the Writory leaderboard.
- A participation certificate goes to every entrant in Japan, not only to the shortlisted few.
- Winning a month makes the next month's entry free, and entering three consecutive months earns a free entry as well.
- The five criteria score stays in your profile, concrete evidence of craft for a portfolio or an application.
Haiku, tanka, senryu, gendaishi free verse, prose poems and English language poems all fit, and so does work in any other language written in Japan today.
Key facts
- Entries open the 1st, close the 25th at 11:59 PM IST, results on the 30th.
- One poem $5, two poems $8, five poems $15 (Rs 150 / Rs 220 / Rs 450 in India).
- Every poem scored by human judges on five criteria: creativity, emotion, structure, language and theme.
- A participation certificate for every entrant, not only winners, and the score is visible in your profile.
- Cash prizes for winners, free entry the following month for winners, open worldwide from age 13, any language.
Questions
日本語の詩を応募できますか？
はい。このコンテストはあらゆる言語の詩を受け付けており、日本語の詩も英語の詩と同じ五つの基準、創造性、感情、構成、言語、テーマで審査されます。
Are haiku and tanka eligible, or only longer poems?
Fully eligible. A haiku is judged as a complete poem against the same five criteria as everything else. Brevity is not a handicap here; compression done well scores.
When is the deadline in Japanese time?
Entries close at 11:59 PM Indian time on the 25th of each month, which is about 3:30 AM on the 26th in Japan. Submit by the evening of your 25th and you are comfortably inside the window.
How are winners in Japan paid?
Through PayPal, which serves Japan directly, in US dollars. Every entrant, winning or not, also receives a judged score out of 100 and a named certificate carrying the title Writorian.
By the Writory editorial team. Updated July 2026.
Enter the August contest · All poetry competitions 2026: deadlines & prizes · International poetry contest · Past winners · Read the winning poems