I entered this about 5 years ago and got selected for a photo I took with my K-01 / FA 100-300. At that time you got 5,000 yen Ricoh store credit (around USD 50) for having a photo selected - a fairly trivial amount. Since the camera was already out, the photo was not used in any promotional materials, but they showed all the winners at CP+ 2013. It's the reason I started going there as a matter of fact. Then the photos were shown in the Shinjuku and Ginza Ricoh Imaging showrooms and some kind of web slideshow.
This is the photo. What makes the photo is the clearly defined silhouette of the hilltops with the trees and villages, and for some reason they don't look well defined after uploading here. It looked a lot better printed at A3 size.
For me I have no interest in commercial photography or making a name for myself. I was just curious to see if my photo would be accepted and chosen, so I was really happy. Also, It gave me a bit of a "way in" to chat to the Ricoh guys at the show, and because I had to sign up to get my store credit, I ended up getting regular communications from Ricoh. So I guess in that sense it made me more engaged with the company.
I never mentioned this contest on the forum before, because I thought it would just annoy people that it was limited to Japan, and result in people saying that Ricoh is too Japan-centric. Now they are making it global, and it seems like people are annoyed anyway. Never mind.