Kanagawa Festival to be staged in Da Nang

The department said about 400 Vietnamese students from six universities and colleges in central Vietnam will take the opportunity to exchange opinions and feelings about Japanese culture, study, and job recruitment in Japan at the festival.

A speaking contest in Japanese entitled: ‘Our Dream on the Vietnam-Japanese connection’ will be organised at the festival among Vietnamese students, along with a Japanese job fair as well as experience-sharing sessions with current students in Japan.

Governor of Kanagawa Prefecture Yuji Kuroiwa and representatives of Japanese businesses in Da Nang will talk about the relationship between Japan and Vietnam, and the co-operation and investment from the two localities.

According to the department, the festival is one in a series of activities in the anniversary year of Vietnam-Japan diplomatic ties, from early 2023.

Da Nang has inked friendship and co-operation agreements with Kisarazu, Kawasaki, Sakai, and Yokohama localities in Japan, and it has hosted the annual Vietnam-Japan Cultural Exchange Day since 2014.

Japan upgraded its Consular Office in Da Nang City to the General Consulate just a year after it was established.

The city-based Dong A University, which is the only high-quality human resource training centre for the Japanese market, established the first Japanese language studies and culture research faculty in central Vietnam.

Da Nang has been calling for stronger and deeper investment from Japanese businesses in Kisarazu, Yokohama, Osaka, Chiba, and Kanagawa.

Japanese investors have poured US$1.04 billion into 228 projects in Da Nang, creating 40,000 jobs for provinces in central Vietnam.

The Kanagawa Festival will help promote friendship between the two localities and other cities in Japan in the coming years, the department said.