People :
Chief Representative of "Publication Koshien (Competition)"
Ms. Megumi Tada

Megumi Tada was born in Tokyo in 1984. She graduated from Tokyo Gakugei University senior high school. She is a junior in the School of Letters, Arts and Sciences I, majoring in human sciences. Her hobbies are snowboarding, swimming and traveling.

She is very cheerful. Her smile and clear way of talking makes everyone lively. She has launched an Ultimate club (American sport), Waseda festival staff community, a Travel club and a Publication club, and part-time jobs. The Publication Koshien is her latest event. She is so active that she can make friends with people of all ages and both sexes.

The Publication Koshien, which Tada has participated in, is a new event that collects publication plans from university students all over Japan, have them judged by 700 editors and publish the best plan as a real book. In the finals, students have the opportunity of making presentations in front of editors. Unless a plan is selected as the grand prix winner, there is a possibility that some publishers would like the plan and publish it. She says, "Students' needs and editors' views are not always the same. We judge all plans from the view of both sides."

Though it is often said that young people don't read very much, Tada has a different feeling. "I would like to activate the publishing industry by the power of students." Although her interest was sparked by the event itself, she didn't have a lot of knowledge of publishing books. "As I don't know that much about it, I can see it from the different view, namely how to get young people to read books." She has learned that best sellers are born not only from their contents but also as a result of editors' ideas about how to present the book.

"Reading weblogs makes me think there are many excellent people though they are not known. I would like to find those who are active in the non-book related world and have them acknowledged through books." Every time she meets those who are doing their best, she acquires something of their energy. "I like meeting people. I realized this all over again as a result of this activity," she says with her big eyes sparkling.