Vietnam Festival 2023 with the theme of “Hope”, organised at Yoyogi Park (Tokyo, Japan) from 2nd to 4th June (Photo: https://vnembassy-jp.org/)

The event is one of the cultural events aiming to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Japan.

Attended the Opening Ceremony were distinguished guests from Japan side, such as Princess Kako Akishino, Festival senior advisor - former Prime Minister of Japan Fukuda Yasuo, Japanese Foreign Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa, Chairman of the Komeito party Yamaguchi Natsuo and many Japanese MPs and local leaders.

Princess Kako Akishino (Photo: PC Group)

Japanese Royal member, MPs and local leaders at the event (Photo: Department of International Cooperation, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism)

Giving her opening remarks, Ms. Le Thi Thu Hang, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam expresses her gratitude at the good, comprehensive and increasingly substantive development of the Vietnam - Japan Extensive Strategic Partnership; Meetings between senior leaders of the two countries and people-to-people exchanges take place regularly and closely.

After 14 events, this year's festival with the theme "Hope" is the largest-scale cultural exchange activity between Vietnam and Japan in 2023 - the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. The event also shows the expectation of governments, localities and people of the two countries to hold hands together towards the future, bringing the two countries' friendly cooperation into a new stage of development, emphasised Ms. Le Thi Thu Hang.

Vietnam Festival 2023 is the largest-scale with 140 booths (Photo: https://vnembassy-jp.org/)

Accordingly, this is the largest scale Vietnam Festival 2023, with 140 booths, including 51 food stalls and 89 booths for cultural display, exhibition and promotion. The Vietnamese Embassy in Japan coordinated with Bac Giang Provincial People’s Committee to introduce fresh lychees to festival goers, attracting visitors to enjoy, including Japanese Foreign Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa.

Booths displaying Vietnamese handicrafts were set up (Photo: Department of International Cooperation, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism)

The festival has the participation of the Water Puppetry Troupe (Vietnamese Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism), famous singers from Vietnam. According to the Embassy of Vietnam in Japan, the event attracted more than 200,000 visitors, despites the bad weather.

A water puppetry troupe from Vietnam presents at the event for the first time to showcase the rich traditional culture of the country (Photo: Department of International Cooperation, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism)

Besides fruits, booths in the festival also introduced many traditional dishes such as pho, spring rolls, banh mi... and also special salted coffee. Ms. Le Thi Phuong Thao, representative of a Vietnamese business in Japan said that Vietnamese cuisine has great appeal. In just a few hours of operation, the company's dishes brought to the festival on the first day such as banh mi and salted coffee were all sold out.

A crowd of Vietnamese and Japanese enjoying the theme song of the festival “Hope” (Photo: https://vnembassy-jp.org/)

At the Closing Ceremony, Vietnamese Ambassador Pham Quang Hieu affirmed “Hope” is a message showing the desire that the two countries' relations will develop stronger, and the friendship between Vietnam and Japan cultivated over the years will continue to be strengthened.

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