The Viet Nam-Japan Cultural Exchange Festival 2018 is taking place at the eastern end of Da Nang’s Rong (Dragon) Bridge from 27 - 29 July.

A Japanese sake barrel-breaking ceremony (kagami-biraki in Japanese)

The 3-day event features numerous cultural, cuisine and information stands. Visitors to the event can try on cosplay costumes, participate in various exciting folk games, and enjoy traditional tea ceremonies and musical performances performed by arts troupes from Japan.

The opening ceremony of the event was officially held in the city on Thursday evening.

Present at the opening ceremony were Deputy Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son, Japanese Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Viet Nam Umeda Kunio, municipal Party Committee Deputy Secretary Vo Cong Tri, local People’s Council Chairman Nguyen Nho Trung, and municipal People’s Committee Chairman cum Head of the Department of Publicity and Training Dang Viet Dung.

Deputy Secretary Tri speaking at the opening ceremony (Photos: danang.gov.vn)

In his remarks at the opening ceremony, Deputy Secretary Tri noted that Viet Nam and Japan have together established the bilateral friendship and cooperation based on mutual respect, trust, and benefit.

He added his city has to date developed cooperative bilateral relations with over 20 prefectures and cities of Japan on such aspects as culture, education, healthcare, sports and humanitarian aid. Currently, the city is home to 150 Japanese-invested projects with a total capital of 530 million USD.

Mr Tri also said that the Viet Nam - Japan Cultural Exchange Festival was firstly held in the city in 2014. Since then, it has become a meaningful cultural event for locals, visitors and Japanese ex-pats who are living and working in the city.

He hoped that more cultural and sports exchange events would be organised in the future in a bid to strengthen the friendship and cooperation relations between Viet Nam and Japan, as well as to enhance bilateral investment and tourism promotion activities.

Deputy Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son highlighted the significance of the festival in offering a good opportunity for Vietnamese people to not only get insights into Japanese culture, arts and cuisine, but also learn from experience of land of the rising sun in urban and tourism development work.