For the first 3-year cycle, Takemitsu himself chose the winners: Henri Dutilleux (1997), György Ligeti (1998), and Luciano Berio (1999).
For the third 3-year cycle (2003–2005), George Benjamin (2003), Magnus Lindberg (2004) and John Adams (2005 • cancelled) were nominated on the recommendation of the competition's advisors (Hiroyuki Iwaki, Oliver Knussen, Kent Nagano, Kazushi Ohno, Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Hiroshi Wakasugi) and preceding judges.
For the fourth 3-year cycle (2007–2009), the advisors and previous judges selected Akira Nishimura (2007), Steve Reich (2008) and Helmut Lachenmann (2009).
Tristan Murail (2010), Salvatore Sciarrino (2011) and Toshio Hosokawa (2012) were appointed as judges for the new 2010-2012 cycle.
[4] The winners are:[5][6] "Im Bauch des Fisches drei Tage und drei Nächte " by Siqi Liu (China) "At The End Of Snow Line" by Zhuosheng Jin (China) "BORÉAS" by Xinyang Wang (China) "SIX PRAYERS" by David Roche (UK) "POÈMES DE MIDI" by Francisco Domínguez (Spain) "Saṃsāra" by Carmen Ho (UK) "Moonlight Hidden in the Clouds" by Kohsuke Negishi (Japan) "BREAKING A MIRROR" by Giorgio Francesco Dalla Villa (Italy)