Baylor Welcomes National Japanese Debate Team for Public Debate

Media Contact: Baylor University Media and Public Relations, 254-710-1961
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by Cacey Vigil, student newswriter, Baylor University Media and Public Relations

WACO, Texas (March 4, 2020) – The Glenn R. Capp Debate Forum will host a public debate featuring Baylor Debate and the Japanese National Debate Team at 7 p.m. Thursday in Room 101 of Castellaw Communications Center, 219 Baylor Ave.

The Glenn R. Capp Debate Forum regularly hosts public debates on Baylor's campus as a way to generate meaningful public deliberation on contemporary social and political issues and to serve as a model of how to engage in competitive argumentation while remaining civil and respectful of one's opponents.

The topic for the upcoming debate is whether the quarantines and public closings are justified in containing the spread of COVID-19.

“I see this as an opportunity for cultural exchange and education for the students involved and for those in attendance,” said Matthew Gerber, Ph.D., associate professor and The Glenn. R. Capp Chair of Forensics. “We are honored that the Japanese team chose to make a stop at Baylor while on their month-long tour of the United States.”

The Japanese team will argue in favor for the quarantines and public closings as being justified in containing the virus. Debating for the Japanese will be Yuta Watanabe, Waseda University, and Takuto Kasara, Kanazawa University.

Watanabe is a scholarship student of the English Law and has experience with Japanese-language policy debate and in English-language parliamentary debates.

Kasara, in his second year of law school at Kanazawa University, has appeared at the Japan Debate Association (JDA) Debate Tournament in 2019 as well as the CODA National Tournament in 2018 and 2019.

The Baylor team will argue against the quarantines and public closings as not being justified in containing the virus. Representing Baylor will be Nicole Nave and Jacob Smith, department of communications graduate students and assistant coaches for Baylor Debate.

Nave won the 2017 National Debate Tournament (NDT) and Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA) National Championships in College Debate as an undergraduate for Rutgers-Newark. Nave is the executive director of the Women's Debate Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to increasing women's participation in the debate activity at all levels.

Smith is a former college debater who reached the deep elimination rounds at both the NDT and CEDA while debating as an undergraduate at the University of Oklahoma.

While the event is a great opportunity for those participating in the debate to put their skills to the test, it also will help attendees learn more about the concerns surrounding the spread of the coronavirus and the public closings happening throughout Japan.

“Given that all government offices and public schools in Japan are currently shut down due to fears over the spread of COVID-19, we thought it might be a unique time to tackle this particular topic while the Japanese were in the U.S. visiting,” Gerber said.

ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY

Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 18,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 90 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions.