Tokyo (VNA) -♌ A football tournament for all Vietnamese people across Japan named FAVIJA Olympic Tokyo Cup 2020 was kicked off by a ceremony for the draw held at the headquarters of the Vietnamese Embassy in Tokyo, Japan on February 23.

This is the biggest football tournament ever of the Vietnamese community in Japan with the participation of 64 teams, which are selected from 83 registered teams. The tournament was organised by the football association of Vietnamese people in Japan (FAVIJA) under the auspices of the Embassy of Vietnam in Japan. The tournament is one of the activities towards the Olympic Tokyo 2020, therefore, it is called FAVIJA OLYMPIC TOKYO 2020. Prominent among the guests at the launching ceremony was Kikuchi Masahiko, head of the international bureau under Japan’s National Police Agency and FAVIJA President Do Quang Ba, representative of the Vietnamese Embassy in Japan. Addressing the draw ceremony, head of the international bureau under Japan’s National Police Agency Kikuchi Masahiko spoke highly of the tournament, saying that this is a good and healthy activity. He also introduced the book “Residency book for foreigners” in Vietnamese language. The book introduces Japanese legal documents and practice, which advises foreigners how to live in Japan legally and properly. At the draw ceremony, 64 teams were divided into 16 groups. According to the organisers, the qualifier round of the FAVIJA OLYMPIC TOKYO will take place from March 8 -15 at two stadiums of Hachioji and Tokodai University in Tokyo. The total value of the award is up to 600,000 JPY (5,500 USD) along with prizes from players from the Vietnamese national football team, such as Nguyen Anh Duc, Nguyen Quang Hai, Pham Thanh Luong. There are nearly 400,000 Vietnamese people living and working in Japan. Over 60 percent of them are aged between 20-30. Most of them love football. There are about 300 football clubs. The tournament aims to strengthen the solidarity among Vietnamese people in Japan and enhance the Vietnam-Japan traditional friendship.

According to Japan’s Immigration Services Agency, the number of Vietnamese people residing in Japan amounts to 371,755, serving as an important bridge to promote the two countries’ relations, making it third largest foreign community in the country, following Chinese community in Japan🅘 with 786,241 people and Koreans with 451,543 people.

According to the agency, the number of Vietnamese people increased by 12.4 percent compared to data in the most recent report. Particularly, the number of Vietnamese living in Japan as "skill trainees" is growing sharply, reaching about 190,000 at present.

𒁃 Vietnam and Japan share a lot of common interests and the two economies are supplementary rather than competitive. Japan is now the biggest provider of official development assistance (ODA), the second largest investor, the third biggest tourism partner, and the fourth biggest trade partner of Vietnam.

In 2019, more than 900,000 Japanese tourists came to Vietnam with Hoi An ancient city in central Quang Nam province being one of the most popular places. Also in the year, over 400,000 Vietnamese visited Japan. More than 1,400,000 people attended exchange activities between the two countries. Stronger cooperation and connectivity help Vietnam and Japan have more power to bring the bilateral extensive strategic partnership to a new height for the interests of the two peoples as well as for peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and beyond./.