Ambassador Pham Quang Hieu visits and works in Gifu Prefecture

On April 24, 2025, Vietnamese Ambassador to Japan Pham Quang Hieu visited Gifu Prefecture, which is geographically considered the "central point" of Japan. During the visit, the Ambassador met with the Governor of the province; attended the opening ceremony of the Sakusia Multicultural Symbiosis Center of Yabashi Holdings Group. The Honorary Consul of Vietnam in Nagoya, the President of the Vietnam Digital Transformation Association in Japan and the Vietnamese Association in Gifu Prefecture accompanied Ambassador Pham Quang Hieu in the meetings.

At the meeting, Governor Esaki Yoshihide expressed his gratitude to Ambassador Pham Quang Hieu for taking the time to visit. He affirmed that Gifu Prefecture highly values and wishes to promote exchanges and cooperation with Vietnam in the spirit of trust, solidarity, unity and mutual support, so he will soon visit Vietnam at a convenient time. Appreciating the contributions of the Vietnamese community living, studying and working in the province's socio-economic development, he said that Vietnamese workers are and will continue to become an indispensable workforce of the province in the future. Gifu is actively building a multicultural symbiotic society, hoping to continue to receive more, create favorable conditions and actively support the Vietnamese community in organizing cultural exchange activities, including the Vietnam Festival in Gifu. Ambassador Pham Quang Hieu thanked Governor Esaki for his good feelings and warm and cordial reception. He respectfully invited the Governor to soon lead a delegation of Gifu businesses to visit Vietnam, sign cooperation agreements with Vietnamese localities, and encourage businesses in the province to participate in large-scale exhibitions and fairs on goods supply in Vietnam to promote investment and trade cooperation with Vietnam. The Ambassador requested the Governor to continue to facilitate and support Vietnamese workers to meet the higher standards of Japan's job training program effective from July 2027. At the same time, create conditions for a large number of Vietnamese enterprises and IT engineers to start businesses and participate in supporting the province's digital transformation efforts. He hoped that the Governor would pay attention to supporting the Vietnamese community to regularly organize cultural and sports exchange activities, especially the Vietnam Festival in the province. He affirmed that the Embassy always accompanies and actively supports the promotion of exchanges and cooperation between Gifu province and Nghe An province and other localities of Vietnam in the coming time.

Attending the opening ceremony of the Sakusia Multicultural Symbiosis Center, Ambassador Pham Quang Hieu highly appreciated the attention and support of Yabashi Holdings Group for Vietnamese workers in particular and foreign workers in general. Considering the Center as a typical model of Japanese enterprises, contributing to promoting the long-term attachment of employees to enterprises. Expressing the wish that in the next phase, the Center should be operated under an open mechanism, promoting exchange, understanding and attachment between Japanese people and the foreign community, building a successful multicultural symbiotic society in Japan.

Ambassador Pham Quang Hieu with the Governor of Gifu Prefecture

Ambassador Pham Quang Hieu and the delegation with the Governor of Gifu Prefecture

Ambassador Pham Quang Hieu with the Board of Directors of Yabashi Holdings