Launch Ceremony of the Kansai Chapter, NPO Vietnamese Association in Japan

It had been a long time — close to twenty years, in fact — since the refugee generation and the younger generation that recently came to settle in Japan had gathered together in the Kansai region.

By “older generation,” we mean those pioneers who carved out a new life in this once-foreign land. Below we quote the heartfelt reflection that Mr. Nguyen Huy shared on the day of the reunion last Sunday, December 18.

LAUNCH CEREMONY OF THE KANSAI CHAPTER, NPO VIETNAMESE ASSOCIATION IN JAPAN

In the early 1980s, the number of Vietnamese living in Kansai was still quite small compared to Tokyo. After leaving the resettlement camps, most chose Himeji to settle, with a few moving up to Osaka and Kobe.

In 1983, seeing that a Vietnamese community was forming in Osaka, the Vietnamese Association in Japan asked the younger members to open a Kansai chapter office, run by an energetic former international student, Mr. Ng. Đ. Cẩm. I had only been in Japan three years, but he picked me as his assistant and “talked me into” leaving my company to study and staff the office with him.

Fortunately, my office expenses and living costs were covered by the Indochina Refugee Solidarity Association. This gave me time to travel all around Kansai helping with cases that needed an interpreter — visa renewals, school enrollment for children, hospital visits, and so on. Together with members of the Association, we organized programs for Hoi Xuan (the Lunar New Year celebration), Vietnam–Japan Exchanges (Tet), the National Ancestor Memorial Day, summer camps, and Mid-Autumn Festival, as well as Vietnamese language classes for children at apartment complexes with large Vietnamese populations. The work was year-round.

For more than a decade, from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s, the Kansai Chapter of the Vietnamese Association grew quite large within the local Vietnamese community. At the time, Himeji had about 6,000 Vietnamese residents, the Kobe area 3,000, and Osaka around 2,000.

However, support from the Solidarity Association eventually reached its limit, especially after the passing of its General Secretary, Mr. Yata Akira — a great benefactor of our Association. The office had to close, and I had to find stable work to support my family. The Association’s community activities gradually faded and only began to revive recently, through pandemic-era relief efforts, protests against China’s encroachment on Vietnamese sovereignty, JLPT preparation classes, intergenerational gatherings, and other initiatives — all powered by the partnership of younger members who came over from Vietnam more recently.

Recognizing the need for an organization to tie together community life and to support the newly arrived, a few committed members began discussing the idea of re-establishing the Kansai chapter…

And so, on December 18, at the grounds of the “House of Hope” of the Vietnam Friendship Association in Kobe, people of many generations — from their 20s to their 70s — came together to form a 7-member executive committee. The chapter chair is Mr. Nguyen Minh Tuyen, who has lived in Japan for 32 years and currently runs a trading company. The deputy chair and standing committee member is a younger-generation engineer, while the older generation is represented by the CEO of a precision-machining company and Mr. Nguyen Huy, a labor and visa consultant.

Next year, the chapter will gradually move into concrete activities aimed at improving how the Vietnamese community is perceived in Japanese society — not just as the former refugee population, but also as today’s workers, students, and families. As immediate priorities: opening a Vietnamese language class in Hikone, hosting visa consultation sessions, providing labor support, marking the Hung Vuong King Memorial Day, and the 2023 Summer Camp.

The launch ceremony wrapped up with a wonderful spread of Nha Trang–style banh canh cha ca (rice noodle soup with fish cake), che dau van (white-bean sweet soup), and other dishes lovingly prepared by the family of one executive committee member.

See you again soon.

NGUYEN HUY