Tokyo (VNA)🍸 – Dr Tomotaka Shoji,Director of the Regional Research Division at the National Institute forDefence Studies under the Japanese Ministry of Defence, has said that Vietnam-Japanrelations have potential for further development.

In an interview granted to the Vietnam NewsAgency's resident correspondent ahead of President Vo Van Thuong’s official visit to Japanfrom 27-30, the Japanese scholar said that in the context that this year marks the 50th founding anniversary of Japan-Vietnam diplomatic ties and the 50th anniversary of ASEAN-Japan friendship and cooperation, the visit is an opportunity for Prime MinisterFumio Kishida and President Thuong to reaffirm the strength of the bilateral relationsand further development of bilateral/multilateral ties.  According to Dr. Shoji, Japanese people consider Vietnam anideal tourist destination due to its close geographical location, attractive sites and cuisine. He assessed that Vietnam is a very fast-growing economy and its people are full of energy. He also expressed his delight that Vietnamese people feelfamiliar with Japan and Japanese people find that Vietnamese people are veryfriendly, especially when there are many Vietnamese people living in the EastAsian country. The feeling of familiarity plays an important role inpromoting Japan's cooperation with Vietnam, he continued. Regarding the strengths of the Vietnam-Japan relations, Shojiaffirmed that the two countries can establish and maintain strong bilateralrelations thanks to geographical proximity, ethnic sympathy, and economiccomplementarity and converging strategic interests. He said that the first strength is economic collaboration,emphasising that bilateral cooperation in this field has obtained strongprogress. Japan has long valued economic cooperation in its foreign policy.With strong economic potential, Japan wants to promote its advantages tostrengthen relations with Vietnam. Security is also a very important area ofcooperation, Shoji said, elaborating that the two sides have many prospects for cooperation in this regard. Touching on challenges in the bilateral relations, he said that despitegood relations between the two countries, Vietnam and Japan still need toresolve a number of issues, including policies relating to technical apprentices. It is necessary for the two countries tomaintain and deepen their relationship by collaborating more in areas such assustainable economy, environmental protection and regional security, Shoji said. Heexpressed his confidence that cooperation in the economic and security fields between the two countries will continue to develop in the coming time. Shoji noted that there are many issues that affect not onlyVietnam and Japan, but also other countries in the world, such as climate change. Each countryis facing different problems, such as the environment. Therefore, he believed that Japan and Vietnam should work together to solve these problems and thiscould be a potential area of cooperation in the future./.