Participants at a press meeting held on Thursday to introduce the 8th Vietnam – Japan Festival that will take place from February 23 – 26 in HCM City. Photo courtesy of HCM City Media Center

Japan and Vietnam will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations this year and the Vietnam – Japan Festival would kick-start a series of exchange and cooperation activities between the two countries, said Trần Phước Anh, director of the city’s Department of Foreign Affairs.

In its eighth edition, the festival would be extended to a larger scale, featuring 12 major events in many fields such as culture, art, cuisine, trade and tourism, Anh said at a press meeting on Thursday in HCM City.

A series of trade, cuisine and tourism exchanges, a Vietnam-Japan music show and Vietnamese and Japanese product promotion programmes would be held on February 25-26 at the September 23 Park in the city’s District 1.

Seminars on trade and tourism promotion and Vietnam-Japan culinary culture would also be highlights of the four-day festival.

A manga festival would be held from February 23-24 at Nikko Saigon in District 1.

Watanabe Nobuhiro, Japanese Consul General in HCM City, said Japan was the third-largest foreign investor and the four-largest trade partner of Vietnam.

Vietnam is among the favorite destinations of Japanese tourists, with around one million Japanese visitors travelling to Việt Nam in 2019, according to the diplomat.

Around 2,000 Japanese enterprises are doing business in Vietnam and more than 20,000 Japanese people are living and working in Việt Nam.

These demonstrate the extensive strategic partnership between the two countries.

The 8th Vietnam – Japan Festival is the opening of a series of programmes to mark the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties of the two countries. —VNS