Viet Nam regards Japan as one of its most important and long-term strategic partners and a trusted companion in the new era of development, National Assembly (NA) Vice President Nguyen Thi Thanh said while receiving Saito Hiroaki, a member of the Japanese House of Representatives and Chair of its Committee on Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, together with lawmakers from Japan's Liberal Democratic Party and Centrist Reform Alliance, in Ha Noi on September 3.