Addressing the congress, Vietnam’s Cultural Counsellor Do Van Trung highly appreciated the humane activities done by VYSA as well as the Vietnamese community in Japan, which he said have helped poor people and disadvantaged children in Vietnam and strengthened the friendship between the peoples of Vietnam and Japan.

Mr Trung called on Vietnamese students in Japan to work harder in their studies for the sake of Vietnam’s national construction and development.

In October 2010, VYSA successfully held a large-scale music festival to introduce Japanese friends to Vietnam’s land and people, from which it raised funds for assisting poor Vietnamese pupils back home.

The newly elected VYSA president, Nguyen Ngoc Tu, affirmed that in 2011, the association will expand its activities to help Vietnamese students and young people in Japan and to strengthen solidarity among young people as well as mutual understanding between the two countries’ people.

VYSA, founded in 2001, now has 14 chapters across Japan.

The association is conducting a series of projects to assist young Vietnamese people in Japan.