Vietnam Festival 2023

On June 3-4, the Vietnam Festival 2023 with the theme Hope was held at Yoyogi Park, Tokyo, Japan.

Delegates take souvenir photos.

The festival is an annual activity and has become a prestigious cultural exchange event, highly anticipated by Japanese friends and the Vietnamese community in Japan. The festival is also one of the outstanding cultural events celebrating the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Japan.

Attending the opening ceremony were Princess Kako, former Prime Minister Fukuda Yasuo, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, Chairman of the Komeito Party Yamaguchi Natsuo, former Japanese Defense Minister Inada Tomomi, Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister Le Thi Thu Hang, Vietnamese Ambassador to Japan Pham Quang Hieu, representatives from several Vietnamese localities, Vietnam-Japan exchange associations, and many Vietnamese people and Japanese friends.

The speeches at the opening ceremony affirmed that the relationship between the two countries is developing extremely well; there are many exchanges in all fields, of which the Vietnam Festival in Yoyogi 2023 is one of the typical activities to strengthen the friendship between the two countries.

Japanese Foreign Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa said that recently, the two sides agreed to continue to strengthen cooperation to elevate bilateral relations to a new level and hoped that there would be more and more Vietnamese restaurants in Japan.

The festival is an annual activity and has become a prestigious cultural exchange event, awaited by many Japanese friends and the Vietnamese community in Japan.

The Vietnam Festival 2023 is the largest festival ever, with 140 booths, including 51 food booths and 89 booths displaying, exhibiting and promoting culture. The Embassy coordinated with the People's Committee of Bac Giang province to directly introduce fresh lychee to the event, attracting a large number of visitors to enjoy, including Japanese Foreign Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa.

In addition to fruit, the stalls also introduce many traditional dishes such as pho, spring rolls, bread... and special salt coffee.

Ms. Le Thi Phuong Thao, representative of a Vietnamese enterprise in Japan, said that Vietnamese cuisine has great appeal. Within just a few hours of operation, the dishes the company brought to the festival on the first day such as bread and salted coffee were all sold out.

The festival had the participation of the Water Puppetry Troupe, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism; popular young singers such as Amee, Grey D, attracting more than 200,000 visitors, even though from the day before until the opening time, Tokyo had heavy rain due to the influence of a storm.

The Organizing Committee had a hard time preparing and calculating backup plans in case of rain. However, the weather did not disappoint, clearing up just before the opening ceremony, making the Festival truly a festival for Vietnamese people in Japan and many Japanese friends; exchanging and enjoying Vietnamese music, art and cuisine. Through that, we can feel more clearly the increasingly close relationship between Vietnam and Japan.

Many Vietnamese and Japanese friends stayed until the last hours of the Festival, lighting up the stage with lights from their phones and singing Hope - the theme song of the Festival.

Closing the Festival, Ambassador Pham Quang Hieu was moved by the hearts of Vietnamese people in the host country towards their homeland and the sincere feelings of Japanese friends; affirming that "Hope" is the message expressing the desire that the relationship between the two countries will increasingly develop, and the friendship between Vietnam and Japan, which has been cultivated over many years, will continue to be strengthened.

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