40th Year of ASEAN-Japan Friendship and Cooperation
ASEAN and Japan mark the 40th anniversary of ASEAN-Japan Dialogue relations in 2013. To celebrate this milestone, the ASEAN Post Ministerial Conference with Japan, held in July 2012, agreed to carry out commemorative activities throughout 2013.
ASEAN and Japan’s cooperative partnership began in 1973 with the establishment of ASEAN-Japan forum on synthetic rubber. Through the years, ASEAN and Japan have forged close cooperation towards peace, stability, development and prosperity in Asia. They have established close business partnership with total bilateral trade amounting to 248 billion US dollars in 2011. ASEAN Member States are major foreign direct investment destinations for Japanese enterprises.
For2013, Japan and ASEAN Member States plan to carry out exchange projects in a wide range of fields, including political dialogue, economy, culture, youth, and tourism. Exchange programs of concerned organizations and private sectors are encouraged, as are collaborative activities by government and private sectors.
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The ASEAN-Japan Centre hosted ASEAN Festival 2013 on October 5-6, 2013 at Yamashita-park, Yokohama-city. This event was co-organized by Yokohama City and supported by The Japan-ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Exchange Group of the House of Councilors, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japan Tourism Agency and Embassies of ASEAN Member States and others..
The great contributions of ASEAN Embassies in Tokyo were covering all aspects of event implementation, such as presence of Ambassadors/representatives at the Opening Ceremony, managing country booth to highlight charms of each country, arranging talented performers to introduce authentic culture from their home countries and communities residing in Japan.
66 booths comprised of 31 food/beverage booths, 25 retailers/sponsors/ companies booths, and 10 Embassy booths and spread the greenery park with tempting smell of ASEAN Cuisine which attracted 100,000 people over two days.
At the stage, many visitors enjoyed performances with world famous performers like Cambodia Art Association, Saung Angklung Udjo of Indonesia, and Dian Dancers of Singapore. Various performances from Traditional Dance, Pop music to Thai Boxing were more than enough to show the diversity of ASEAN culture.
Another highlight of this event was “Chefs from ASEAN” which we invited 2 chefs from 10 member states respectively. This project provided the opportunities for Japanese public to taste the real ASEAN culinary which may trigger their curiosity to visit ASEAN.