On February 19, at the City Children’s Cultural Palace, Hai Phong Youth Union, Department of Foreign Affairs and Department of Education and Training successfully organized the "Japanese Cultural Festival".
The "Japanese Cultural Festival" is one of practical activities towards the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Japan (September 21, 1973 - September 21, 2023) contributing to promoting people-to-people diplomacy, connecting the friendship between Vietnam and Japan - an important economic partner of Vietnam in general and Hai Phong City in particular.
The festival took place throughout day with many interesting activities: displaying 15 booths with the theme "Experience Japanese cultural space" (such as enjoying tea ceremony, Yuakata traditional costumes, calligraphy, traditional cuisine; taking pictures with costumed characters; trying Origami paper folding art; making traditional Japanese Wagashi cake…)
The festival also consisted of many special performances imbued with Japanese culture in various forms: fashion show, musical comedy, Yosakoi dance, singing and dancing, Vietnamese songs performance in Japanese... The performances were all arranged and performed by the city's pupils and students with careful preparation.
In comparison to the previous programs on Japanese culture in Hai Phong, the "Japanese Cultural Festival 2023" had a new point of the exchange activities of Vietnamese students and Japanese students as well as international students studying and experiencing at the city’s universities. On the other hand, the festival also had exchanges between pupils from schools teaching and learning Japanese in the city.
The introduction of typical Japanese culture helped pupils and students have vivid experiences like being in the land of the rising sun. Through the festival, the Organizing Committee hoped that "Japanese Cultural Festival" is not only a useful playground for pupils and students in the city to experience and learn about Japanese people, culture and customs, but also an opportunity for primary schools, junior high schools, high schools, universities with Japanese language training programs, Japanese clubs in the city to exchange and contribute to spreading the Japanese culture, promoting the Japanese language learning movement in Hai Phong City, thereby developing the Vietnam-Japan friendship.