Kanagawa Governor Yuji Kuroiwa expressed his delight that the festival has returned after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic’s impacts, hoping the event would be warmly welcomed and help connect people in his prefecture and Japan at large with Vietnam.
Vietnamese Ambassador to Japan Vu Hong Nam said first held in 2015, the Vietnam Festival in Kanagawa has become one of the annual cultural exchange events to help enhance mutual understanding between the two peoples through cultural, musical and culinary exchanges, thereby further popularise images of Vietnam’s land, people, culture, and history to Japanese friends.
The festival has also helped strengthen solidarity and friendship, thus contributing to development cooperation in all aspects between the two countries, he added.
During the two-day event, visitors had a chance to enjoy musical performances by Vietnamese and Japanese artists and taste traditional dishes of the Southeast Asian nation. An eloquence contest for international students in Kanagawa was also held.
Located to the south of Tokyo, Kanagawa is the second most populous prefecture in Japan with a population of over 9.2 million. The number of Vietnamese people in the prefecture has been on the rise in recent years, making them the third largest foreign communities in this prefecture, after those from China and the Republic of Korea.
