The 87th Soen Award public judging session was held on April 23rd at the Bunka Gakuen Endo Memorial Hall in Yoyogi, Tokyo. At the public judging session, 16 candidates who passed the second round of judging presented three collections each in a show format. Kei Kuwahara, who designed a gradient dress composed of many small triangular parts based on the theme of beautiful numerical space, won the Soen Award. His collaborative work with Akihiro Kondo also won second place, earning him a double award. Born in Kyoto in 1990, Kuwahara graduated from the Apparel Design Department of the Fashion Technology Course at Bunka Fashion College and currently works freelance. "One of my goals was to enjoy the view from here, so I'm very happy," he said on stage. The first place honorable mention went to Harue Nagamoto, who added faux fur and original wooden elements to a moiré jacquard design featuring a forest print, creating the image of trees transforming into birds and flying away. The second place honorable mention went to Kuwahara Kei and Kondo Akihiro, who combined the designs of two other nominees selected by the public judging panel to create a single dress. The Itokin Award went to Russian designer Veselova Victoria, and the Rooms Award went to Hagiwara Kazusa. The eight judges for the awards were Iwatani Toshikazu, Koshino Junko, Tayama Atsuro, Tsumori Chisato, Hishinuma Yoshiki, Hirokawa Tamae, Maruyama Keita, and Minagawa Akira. Iwatani commented, "The top three designs were very well-crafted, but the Soen Award winner's work was exceptionally well-crafted. It wasn't something we'd never seen before, but it had a compelling beauty." Hirokawa, who joined the judging panel this year, commented, "You could really feel the designer's passion for clothing."

Hishinuma also offered some advice, saying, "The level of completion is high, but there's not much surprise in it. I'd like you to create something that will surprise us next time," while Minagawa said, "The amount of work and the level of completion are impressive, but I'd also like to see works that focus on fabrics and knitwear, or works that take a new approach that goes beyond just the amount of work."

The Soen Award is a fashion contest that was first held in Japan in 1956, and has launched such designers as Takada Kenzo, Yamamoto Yohji, Yamamoto Kansai, and Tsumura Kosuke into the world. Former Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko also visited the venue as a special guest on the day.