Director of the Sports Authority of Viet Nam (SAV) Dang Ha Viet and Vietnamese officials welcomed Kamitani Naoko, First Secretary and Head of the Press and Culture Department of the Embassy of Japan to Viet Nam and her delegation at the SAV’s head quarter.
First Secretary Kamitani thanked director Viet for warmly welcome and spending time for the Japanese side.
Both two sides agreed to hold talks about tightening their relationship by further promote the cooperation in the field of physical education and sports.
Director of the Sports Authority of Việt Nam Dang Ha Viet (third, right) works with the Japanese delegation led by Kamitani Naoko, First Secretary and Head of the Press and Culture Department of the Embassy of Japan to Viet Nam on November 5 in Ha Noi.
“The sports relationship in between Viet Nam and Japan has been going very well for many years. The highlight activities include many programmes such as: Host Town Initiative, which aimed to connect Japanese local towns and countries/regions taking part in the 2020 Tokyo Games and Paralympics; Sports for Tomorrow; and JENESYS 2.0, a new youth exchange programme between Japan and ASEAN Member States,” said Director Viet.
“In recent years, many Japanese experts have come to work as trainers in the Viet Nam’s national sport teams such as karate, football, volleyball, swimming, gymnastics and judo.”
In 2023, Viet Nam sent delegations to participate in street dance programmes; and take part in many seminars and performances in Hidaka City, Saitama Prefecture.
Vietnamese delegates worked with the Viet Nam-Japan Special Ambassador Office, Ryotaro Sugi.
Many friendly competitions of football and boat racing were organised for athletes in both two countries.
These were activities during the framework of the 50th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between Viet Nam and Japan.
In 2024, the SAV coordinated with Seijo University to organise an ASEAN - Japan Conference on gender equality in Viet Nam; participated in an online meeting with representatives of the Nippon Sport Science University in the second conference on ASEAN-Japan’s Physical Education and Sports for Everyone Promotion Programme; and organised the seventh ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting on Sports-Japan (SOMS-Japan).
In order to further promote the above remarkable results, Director Viet suggested four proposals in which he hoped Japan would support sport projects for everyone which specially focused on women, adolescents and girls.
Appreciating the development of Japanese professional sports, Director Viet expected Japan to support Viet Nam in training activities for either athletes or coaches. He hoped high-quality experts would come to help Viet Nam update knowledge in Japan’s strong sports such as judo, swimming, baseball and golf as well as some popular and entertaining sports such as sport fishing and mountain climbing.
In addition, Director Viet asked First Secretary Kamitani to join hands in adequately exploiting the potential cooperation between the SAV and Wakayama and Kanagawa prefectures in each side’s strong and traditional sports such as traditional martial arts and modern martial arts, folk games, sport fishing and modern dance. All should especially focus on students and women.
Regarding the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya in 2026, Director Viet requested the Japanese side to provide training courses and create favorable practising conditions to support Vietnamese national teams in 2025 and 2026 in Japan’ strong sports in order to have the best preparation for the continent's largest multi-sport festival. (The training destination can be considered in Aichi-Nagoya).
First Secretary Kamitani totally agreed with Director Viet and strongly supported the further cooperation in the field of physical education and sports between the two countries.
Accordingly, she affirmed that these information and proposed programmes would be quickly handed to relevant agencies for building suitable orientation and plans for implementation.
First Secretary Kamitani appreciated the results of the working session. She believed that in the upcoming time the two countries would be able to implement many effective activities to promote the cooperation relationship in the field of physical education and sports to higher level.
Thanh Hà