I Presented at Minecraft Cup 2025

I took part in a talk session at Minecraft Cup

I recently appeared on a talk session at Minecraft Cup 2025 held at the University of Tokyo (Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, Fukutake Hall), and discussed “Learning and the Power of Creation from Minecraft,” talking about what I gained through Minecraft.

What is Minecraft Cup

Minecraft Cup is a digital making contest held in Japan for children from elementary through high school, where participants use Minecraft Education to create works based on a theme and compete with entries from across Japan and overseas.

Overview of the talk session

From the left: Mr. Doi from the organizing office, Mr. Sawayama, the CoderDojo Fukuyama Daimon champion, me as a past participant, Mr. Kato from IDENCE Inc., Mr. Sekiguchi, the Sakura Internet / CoderDojo Maebashi champion, and on the far right Mr. Kurihara from the organizing office.

I participated in Minecraft Cup three times in the past, receiving an encouragement award at Minecraft Cup 2023 and qualifying for and receiving an award at Minecraft Cup 2021. I spoke about what happened after those experiences.

Along with announcing that I took part in the talk session, I wanted to write here about my relationship with Minecraft Cup and what I gained from Minecraft (especially from Minecraft Cup).

At the time of this session, a rough description related to Minecraft Cup that applies to me would be: a software engineer who entered Keio University, Faculty of Environment and Information Studies (SFC) after receiving awards at Minecraft Cup. Even calling myself a software engineer feels a bit outdated now that we’re in an era where AI writes code, but that’s the label for now.

I had also been working part-time at Minecraft Cup (Digital Making Council) for the past few months, so while I was a guest speaker I was also helping behind the scenes. If you look closely at photos from the talk session, you can see the Minecraft Cup T-shirt worn by staff peeking out from under my hoodie.

I was a little nervous because I’d only had four hours of sleep from being too excited the day before, I was helping out with operations despite being inexperienced, and it was a short talk between scheduled events. Being a talk session was a fresh experience because, unlike a presentation, the content wasn’t fixed. I feel very grateful to have had such a valuable opportunity…

My relationship with Minecraft Cup

I received an award at Minecraft Cup in 2021. I also had attempts that ultimately didn’t win (like 2023) and times when we made a project but couldn’t submit it (2019). Sometimes things go well, sometimes they don’t. The town planning category of Minecraft Cup is generally a team competition, and our team only succeeded in 2021 — we had disputes, coordination issues, and sometimes lost motivation.

第7回Minecraftカップ | 教育版マインクラフトを使用した作品コンテスト。子どもたちがプログラミングやデジタルなものづくりにふれることのできる機会を創出します。

教育版マインクラフトを使用した作品コンテスト。子どもたちがプログラミングやデジタルなものづくりにふれることのできる機会を創出します。

minecraftcup.com

What kind of team was it?

We gathered people who were technically strong, people good at design and planning, and people with broad, shallow knowledge beyond Minecraft. The team was made up of people who liked what the organizing body calls “digital making.”

We were a group with uneven backgrounds: some didn’t attend school regularly, some couldn’t do what others consider “normal,” and some had exceptional talents. I myself was somewhat truant at the time.

Was that a bad thing? Not really. In 2021, COVID meant online classes or no school at all for many, giving us free time, which became a tailwind — the whole team happily enjoyed digital making with Minecraft.

Also, a notable point is that we didn’t have an instructor at first. Our team kind of formed from friends playing a game together; we didn’t attend any programming schools, we weren’t forced into it by anyone, and we just loved playing Minecraft with friends. Then we found this opportunity, jumped in, met many kind adults, and were able to grow. My parents didn’t specifically push me to play Minecraft, but they didn’t completely reject it either. They would sometimes say things like “game time is 30 minutes a day” (similar to certain local ordinances), but they were thinking about what was best, and in the end it provided an environment where my intellectual curiosity could be satisfied. I consider myself lucky for that.

The effects of Minecraft Cup

So what happened after that? Amazingly, I’m now a university student. I’m attending Keio University, Faculty of Environment and Information Studies (SFC), a place where someone who used to struggle with school can now attend almost perfectly regularly. It’s fun.

I was not good at general school studies (the usual classes up to high school), but I was confident that I could do endless amounts of things I liked. Recently, that kind of individuality has been getting recognized and can even be used in university admissions (called AO admissions at Keio). University is truly a wonderful place where you can study and deeply pursue only the things you like and are interested in.

What happened after Minecraft Cup

Since Minecraft Cup, the main steps have been:

• Starting with a part-time job at a programming school
• Then applying to and being accepted as Mitou Junior (applied and accepted), and winning an award at Apps Koshien 2024 with something I developed there
• Then entering Keio University, Faculty of Environment and Information Studies (SFC)

I think it’s great that what I gained from Minecraft Cup led to these outcomes. Of course, Minecraft Cup isn’t everything, and I met many people outside of it, but it’s certainly one contributing element.

I am now over the age limit for participating in Minecraft Cup, so I’d like to help expand this community around the world. I’m busy at university and pursuing my own projects, so I won’t always be available, but I’ll help as much as I can. I’m based in Tokyo and occasionally show up at events, so please feel free to say hello if you see me!