Winners canceled due to scoring errors in the Kikisake Championship|The cause was a software glitch and a manual misalignment
The Japan Sake Brewers Association announced that there was a scoring error at the "42nd National Kikisake Championship" held in Tokyo on October 28, 2023, resulting in an error in grades and rankings.
This error was confirmed after a re-scoring after a participant questioned it. Scoring was left to the contractor, JTB Business Solutions Division (Shinjuku). The Japan Sake Brewers Association Central Association says that it was "confirming the final results compiled by JTB." The contractor for the National Kikisake Championship is decided by bidding every year, and JTB was in charge of the operation of this event last year as well.
As for the scoring error, there was a problem with the software that reads the mark sheet in the "General Division" Kikisake competition, and the JTB staff manually shifted one by one. "At present, we do not know the product name of the software," the union said. In addition, in the "Intercollegiate Division", there was a mistake in associating the registration number with the player, and the score was mistaken for the score of two teams in the university.
The "National Kikisake Championship" is a tournament to determine the best amateur kikisake in Japan sponsored by the Japan Sake Brewers Association, the largest organization of alcoholic beverage manufacturers in Japan. The representatives who won the prefectural preliminary round will aim to win a prize in the written exam and kikisake. Please note that the operating budget for this event does not include subsidies from the national or local governments.
The Japan Sake Brewers Association said, "We take the situation seriously, review the management of this tournament, and strive to prevent recurrence and restore reliability." The newly announced winners have been announced on the official website.
