Since the inception of PEN-International, a haiku competition has been conducted at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf and Tsukuba College of Technology. The activity was conceived as a cross-cultural student exchange by Professor Jerome Cushman who continues to conduct the competition at NTID.

On 4 November 2002, Professor Cushman was honored with the second place award in the Kumamoto International Kusamakura Haiku Competition (Japan). Professor Cushman was the highest placing American poet in the competition.