aoyama

An MC from a Japanese variety show recently visited the prestigious Miss & Mr. Aoyama Contest and discovered some very tough competition.

On the December 1 episode of NTV’s Tokui to Goto to Uruwashi no Shelly ga Konya Kurabete Mimashita variety show, host Yoshimi Tokui detailed his recent trip to Aoyama Gakuin University. This university, located in Tokyo’s Shibuya neighborhood, is particularly famous for its annual Miss & Mr. Aoyama Contest, which is considered to be Japan’s oldest university beauty pageant and is now holding its 40th iteration.

In fact, the very purpose for Tokui’s visit was to check out this year’s competition–and competition there was! Just take a quick glance below at three of the lovely ladies competing for the coveted title of 2015’s Miss Aoyama.

However, Tokui had a deeper incentive for viewing the competition besides just fawning over some pretty (and handsome) faces. He was also present to scout out potential recruits for entertainment agency cent.FORCE, which he’s a personal fan of. This particular agency has signed in no fewer than 27 former beauty pageant winners and runners-up. Many of them have gone on to become famous TV announcers in Japan, including Christel Takigawa, Minami Tanaka, and Erina Arai, who were all former participants in Aoyama Gakuin University’s Miss Aoyama Contest.

On the day of the big event, the 600-seat venue was filled to capacity and all 1,000 yen (US$8)-admission tickets were reportedly sold out within ten minutes. When the six female contestants took to the stage, Tokui got to work evaluating them as potential future announcers.

Here are the final winners and runners-up for the 2015 Miss & Mr. Aoyama Contest, along with their individual introductory videos:

▼ 2015 Miss Aoyama (Kotoko Yamaga)

▼ 2015 Mr. Aoyama (Shota Yamamoto)

▼ 2015 Miss Aoyama runner-up (Mami Tomita)

▼ 2015 Mr. Aoyama runner-up (Cory Shibata)

Although she didn’t make the top three finalists, second-year literature student Seika Inoue caught Tokui’s eye in particular. He commented that she had a particular spark which could be a good fit for cent.FORCE, and in his eyes she stood out from all of the rest. Check out her introductory video as well:

Do you think Inoue and the others have what it takes to become successful broadcasters? If their participation in Aoyama Gakuin University’s annual contest directly leads to careers in the entertainment world, then kudos to them!

Sources: AOL News Japan, Twitter/@aoyama_misscon
Top image: Twitter/@aoyama_misscon