At the meeting. Photo: Nguyen Van Loi

At the event, they adopted the charter of the association and elected 18 members of the provisional Standing Committee led by Do Phu Son, Director of the HSC Japan Company who has lived in Japan for 14 years and made positive contributions to the development of the Vietnamese community.

Nguyen Duy Anh, Director of the GAG Japanese school, was selected as vice president of the association.

Son affirmed that in his position he will work with other members of the executive board to foster solidarity of the community and complete all tasks of the associationand contribute more to nurturing the bilateral relations.

Participants at the event, coming from different social groups, also vowed to contribute to the development the association.

Speaking at the event, Vietnamese Consul General in Fukuoka Vu Binh expressed his belief that the establishment of the association will help strengthen solidarity of the community, maintaining and developing the tradition and culture of the nation as well as promoting the teaching and studying of the Vietnamese language and contributing to bolstering the Vietnam-Japan relations, , as well as between Fukuoka and Vietnamese localities.

Fukuoka is the economic and scientific center of southwestern Japan, covering an area of ​​about 5,000 square kilometers and a population of 5,101 million. In the past 10 years, the Government of Vietnam has set up a representative office in Fukuoka City, which has created favorable conditions for the support of tourism as well as learning and working of Vietnamese people. Fukuoka has a convenient traffic flow, relatively cheap living costs, with lots of amusement parks and traditional festivals in the region, more specifically, there are more jobs for students.

Moreover, since 2009, Vietnam Airlines has operated a direct flight from Hanoi / Ho Chi Minh City to Fukuoka, with affordable fares, making this place gradually becoming an attractive new tourist destination of Vietnamese people.

Currently, over 33,000 Vietnamese people are living in Kyushu. In the region’s capital city of Fukuoka alone, the number of has increased to 14,000 from only 660 in 2009./.