Robotic cat Doraemon’s journey drives Japanese tourism to Viet Nam
The special episode ‘The Present Is a Trip to Viet Nam’, which is part of the global Doraemon World Tour series, features the journey of Doraemon, Nobita, Shizuka and Doraemi to Viet Nam in an engaging way.
The group visit a number of famous landmarks and try local specialties such as ‘banh mi’, ‘com tam’ (broken rice with grilled pork), and ‘cao lau’ (rice-flour noodles). Throughout the exploration, Doraemi acts as a tour guide, introducing general information about each destination.
Vietnamese culture is introduced to the audience with Shizuka and Doraemi appearing in ‘ao dai’ (the Vietnamese traditional long dress) while Nobita and Doraemon wear ‘non la’ (conical hats).
The special episode has attracted significant interest and encouraged many Japanese to visit Viet Nam.
Expressing his pleasure at the audience response after the screening, the Japanese Ambassador to Viet Nam, Ito Naoki, said the special episode has attracted significant interest and encouraged many Japanese to visit Viet Nam. At the same time, the number of Vietnamese tourists visiting Japan is rising sharply.
This demonstrated the closeness and bond between the peoples of the two countries, the Japanese diplomat said, adding that it also reflected growing people-to-people exchanges and the increasingly broad and deepening cooperative relationship between Viet Nam and Japan.
The Japanese Embassy recently hosted the Japan–Viet Nam Tourism Promotion Seminar in March to review tourism cooperation activities between the two countries.
First Secretary of the Japanese Embassy in Viet Nam, Tanaka Hiroshi, said he was impressed by Vietnamese cuisine and tourist sites, and praised the positive development of cooperation between localities of the two countries over recent years.
Japan hopes to continue promoting links and cooperation between localities in both countries in the future, contributing to the enhancement of bilateral tourism development.
The Japanese Embassy also wants to continue exchanges with the Viet Nam National Authority of Tourism on future promotional and tourism exchange activities between the two countries.
Efforts made to strengthen collaborations as bilateral travel rebounds
According to Japanese Ambassador to Viet Nam Ito Naoki, tourism exchanges between Viet Nam and Japan are growing strongly. In 2025, the number of Vietnamese tourists to Japan reached about 680,000, while Japanese tourists to Vietnam counted about 810,000. Thus, two-way exchanges between Viet Nam and Japan increased against the previous year.
The Japan National Tourism Organisation has also listed Viet Nam among 24 priority destinations to revive Japanese outbound travel.
Assessing Viet Nam–Japan tourism cooperation, the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Lam Thi Phuong Thanh, said that in recent years, the two countries have coordinated effectively in promoting bilateral tourism, contributing to the positive growth in tourist numbers between the two nations in 2026.
She suggested that Japan share more experience in implementing public–private partnership mechanisms in tourism promotion and development. She also called for the facilitation of travel, better air connectivity, and deeper cooperation between tourism enterprises to boost two-way tourist exchanges.
Deputy Director of the Viet Nam National Authority of Tourism, Nguyen Thi Hoa Mai, stressed that Japan is one of Viet Nam’s key tourism markets. Tourism cooperation is showing many positive signs, as both the number of Vietnamese travelling to Japan and Japanese visiting Vietnam have tended to increase recently.
The Viet Nam National Authority of Tourism is always ready to work alongside Japan to promote growth in two-way tourist exchanges between the two countries, she reaffirmed.
She expressed her hope that Viet Nam and Japan will soon draw up a joint tourism plan, agree on solutions, and implement specific tasks to promote growth in tourist numbers between the two countries in a more substantive and effective manner.
The trend of Vietnamese tourists going to Japan and Japanese tourists coming to Vietnam is currently developing simultaneously, thus creating a favourable foundation for both sides to continue strengthening cooperation in the near future.
She observed that the trend of Vietnamese tourists going to Japan and Japanese tourists coming to Vietnam is currently developing simultaneously, thus creating a favourable foundation for both sides to continue strengthening cooperation in the near future.
Viet Nam–Japan cooperation is now being expanded across many fields such as technology, science, and digital transformation. In particular, the model of locality-to-locality cooperation is becoming a positive trend that should continue to be promoted in tourism to strengthen connections, exchanges, and cooperative development between regions in both countries.
Strengthening tourism cooperation not only helps increase visitor numbers, boost spending, and contribute to economic growth, but also plays an important role in promoting people-to-people exchanges and mutual understanding.
Therefore, it lays a solid foundation for broader socio-economic cooperation between Viet Nam and Japan.
