A major shift in economic cooperation
A highlight of the visit was the first-ever Viet Nam-Japan Public-Private Forum on Economic, Science and Technology Cooperation, which attracted the participation of numerous leading Japanese corporations and businesses. The forum marked a shift away from traditional models of assistance and investment towards public-private partnerships (PPPs) as the principal approach to cooperation.
Attending the forum and delivering a keynote address, General Secretary and President To Lam emphasised that if Viet Nam and Japan had spent the past decades jointly building infrastructure and developing manufacturing industries, the coming decades should see them work together to create new technologies, develop new industries, and build new value chains. Japan's strengths, combined with Viet Nam's dynamic workforce and potential market, would generate new growth drivers for both economies.
Thanks to the sincere goodwill and sustained efforts of successive generations of leaders from both countries, Viet Nam-Japan relations have continued to make remarkable progress. Japan is now one of Viet Nam's leading important economic partners. Bilateral trade revenue has maintained steady and balanced growth. Total trade revenue between the two countries reached 52 billion USD in 2025, while the figure for the first nine months of 2026 rose by approximately 15.34% year on year.
Japan is now one of Viet Nam's leading important economic partners. Bilateral trade revenue has maintained steady and balanced growth. Total trade revenue between the two countries reached 52 billion USD in 2025, while the figure for the first nine months of 2026 rose by approximately 15.34% year on year.
Japan currently has 5,872 active investment projects in Viet Nam, with total registered capital exceeding 81 billion USD, ranking third among the 154 countries and territories investing in the country. Around 200 Japanese businesses operate in Viet Nam, investing across 33 of the country's 34 provinces and centrally governed cities, primarily in manufacturing and processing, electricity generation and distribution, and real estate. Cooperation between the two countries is shifting increasingly towards strategic technology sectors. The implementation of joint semiconductor research projects in 2026 is evidence of this important transition.
These achievements had helped create the vibrant atmosphere surrounding the visit. In the framework of the visit, the two sides signed 11 agreements between ministries, sectors, and localities, along with approximately 60 cooperation agreements between businesses. These agreements provide an important foundation for significantly expanding cooperation in areas where both sides have strengths and shared needs, it also facilitates the urgent realisation of the commitments made by the leaders of both nations to shift the focus — moving beyond Viet Nam’s role as a mere recipient of technology and technical assistance towards jointly conducting research and developing and mastering technologies.
During his stay in Japan, General Secretary and President To Lam held a high-level roundtable with corporations and businesses affiliated with the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren), met leading Japanese financial institutions, and held working sessions with executives of major economic groups, research institutes, and universities to listen to their views and discuss directions for sustainable cooperation.
At the roundtable with Keidanren member businesses, an organisation bringing together more than 1,500 of Japan's leading businesses with strong reputations and far-reaching influence, General Secretary and President To Lam affirmed that economic, trade, and investment cooperation constituted the strongest driving force and a solid pillar connecting the two countries.
Keidanren members played a pivotal role in this relationship, he noted. They were not only reliable bridges for bringing investment capital and advanced technologies to Viet Nam but also helped shape a business culture based on high standards of credibility, discipline, occupational safety, and environmental protection.
Businesses needed to improve the quality of cooperation and transform the relationship from traditional cooperation based on the receipt and transfer of technology into one of co-creation, with deeper integration into value chains and supply chains. This would contribute to the goal of high-quality growth and strengthen strategic autonomy capacity.
Connecting human resources and creating new value chains
The Vietnamese community of nearly 700,000 people living, working, and studying across Japan has helped deepen the social foundations of relations between the two countries. More than 100 existing cooperation agreements between localities in the two countries have contributed to effectively connecting human resources and creating new values.
Addressing members of the Japanese Diet, General Secretary and President To Lam called for people to be placed at the centre of bilateral relations and for closer ties between the two societies. He also expressed his wish for labour cooperation to place greater emphasis on quality, skills, and the long-term development of workers, ensuring that Vietnamese people studying and working in Japan have opportunities to develop their professional expertise, working practices, and discipline. Upon returning to Viet Nam, they would then be able to apply their experience, maintain connections, and participate in new cooperation projects.
Located adjacent to the capital Tokyo, Kanagawa Prefecture is Japan's fourth-largest economic centre, with strengths in heavy industry, trade and services, and healthcare. Nearly 40 businesses from the prefecture are investing in Viet Nam, while 25 Vietnamese businesses have invested in Kanagawa. The prefecture among the five Japanese localities with the largest numbers of overseas Vietnamese, with nearly 45,000 Vietnamese people.
The prefectural authorities and its businesses maintain active cooperation with Vietnamese provinces, cities, ministries, and sectors. Healthcare cooperation has increasingly emerged as a prominent area of Viet Nam-Kanagawa relations, focusing on biotechnology, digital healthcare, artificial intelligence (AI), medical equipment, elderly care, and the ME-BYO56 model. Governor Kuroiwa has personally promoted these areas of cooperation with Viet Nam.
From November 2026, Kanagawa Prefecture will open the Ha Noi-Kanagawa Economic and Trade Office in Ha Noi to strengthen substantive cooperation with Viet Nam in the fields of economy, trade, labour, and investment.
During his visit to Kanagawa Prefecture, General Secretary and President To Lam called on the prefectural governor to give greater attention to cooperation with Vietnamese localities, making effective use of existing potential through expanded exchanges and visits at all levels. He also urged the governor to support businesses in the prefecture in strengthening economic and investment cooperation with Viet Nam, particularly in areas where Kanagawa has strengths.
Governor Kuroiwa affirmed his desire to enhance cooperation with Vietnamese localities and said the prefecture would continue promoting cooperation in the fields of healthcare, medical services, innovation, semiconductors, and AI, among other fields. Kanagawa would also seek to recruit more highly skilled Vietnamese workers and technical interns in the coming period.
According to General Secretary and President To Lam, the success of cooperation in the next phase should be measured in terms of the technologies developed, the products created, the businesses that grow together, and the generations of highly skilled human resources trained.
The cooperation model of Meiko Group can be seen as reflecting this spirit. The group currently has nearly 100 Vietnamese employees working in Japan. More than 50% of its workforce are Vietnamese nationals, and this proportion is expected to rise to 60-70% in the future.
These employees will form the core workforce for the group's manufacturing and research facilities to be developed in Viet Nam in the future. To improve the quality of its workforce, Meiko uses approximately 1,100 specialist training videos in combination with on-the-job training (OJT). Its internship cooperation programme with Ha Noi University of Science and Technology has been maintained for three years, welcoming approximately 115 engineers.
Building on the respective needs and interests of both sides in pursuing the goals of growth, strengthening strategic autonomy, and resilience, the leaders of the two countries agreed to strengthen connectivity between their economies in a sustainable development manner. Education and training, together with human resource development, has been identified as one of the four interconnected pillars of cooperation.
Prime Minister Takaichi affirmed that Japan would step up cooperation in training and implement joint research projects with Viet Nam in advanced fields. Through these efforts, Japan would support Viet Nam in training 250 doctors in semiconductors, contributing to Viet Nam's target of training 100 doctors in AI by 2030, while continuing to promote exchanges among future generations of human resources in advanced science and engineering.
On the foundation of friendship and special trust, Viet Nam and Japan are ready to accompany each other on a new path of development, with interconnected and complementary pillars of cooperation that will promote each country's development and create further opportunities for mutual advancement, bring tangible benefits to their peoples, and contribute to peace, stability, and prosperity in the region.
