Japanese crown prince to go to Vietnam to mark 50 years of diplomatic relations

TOKYO — Japanese Crown Prince Akishino, the youthful brother of Emperor Naruhito, was on his technique to Vietnam on Wednesday to mark the fiftieth anniversary of diplomatic relations between the 2 nations, as Tokyo pushes to deepen ties with Southeast Asia and different creating and rising nations to deal with regional and international challenges.

Akishino, at a information convention final week forward of the journey, confused the significance of deepening relations between Japan and Vietnam, noting their lengthy historical past of cultural and financial exchanges relationship again to the sixteenth century.

“Japan and Vietnam have a really shut relationship,” Akishino stated. “I hope we will contribute as a part of an effort to advertise pleasant relations between the 2 nations.” He stated it’s notably essential for youthful individuals to develop mutual understanding and respect for one another’s cultures by exchanges.

In the course of the Sept. 20-25 journey, Akishino and his spouse, Crown Princess Kiko, will go to Hanoi, the place they may see the mausoleum of Vietnam’s first president, Ho Chi Minh, and be a part of anniversary occasions, together with attending a brand new opera, earlier than touring to Hoi An in central Vietnam.

Akishino stated he’s particularly trying ahead to his first go to to Hoi An, an {old} port metropolis that was dwelling to a “Japantown” for Japanese merchants within the first half of the 1600s. He will even go to the close by My Son Sanctuary, an archeological web site with non secular origins in Indian Hinduism.

It will likely be Akishino’s third journey to Japan after earlier visits in 1999 and 2012.

Akishino, who specializes within the research of chickens, stated there are wild breeds of chickens in numerous phases of domestication in Southeast Asia, together with in Vietnam, and their presence, together with the enormous catfish that stay within the Mekong River, are a part of the rationale he’s interested in the area.

The couple’s go to comes three months after his elder brother, Emperor Naruhito, and his spouse Masako visited Indonesia, the chair of the Affiliation of Southeast Asian Nations this yr as ASEAN and Japan mark 50 years of friendship. Japan is Indonesia’s largest supplier of official improvement help, in keeping with Japan’s International Ministry.