The three award-winners of 2018 Awards (Photo courtesy of Japan Foundation)

Vietnamese postgraduates and students are encouraged to send in their theses, written from May 2018, to the foundation’s headquarters at 27 Quang Trung street, Hanoi’s Hoan Kiem district.

The centre will receive entries from now until the end of November 30. The awards ceremony is expected to be held in February 2021.

Inoue Yasushi is one of Japan’s most prolific writers today, and started relatively late as a novelist.

In 2018, lecturer Phan Thu Van from the Ho Chi Minh City Pedagogical University won the first prize at the third Inoue Yasushi Awards for her thesis on two novels by Japanese writers Inoue Yasushi and Kazuo Ishiguro.

Japan cherry blossom festival – Hanoi 2020 cancelled due to COVID-19

Chairman of the People’s Committee of Hanoi Nguyen Duc Chung (R) hosts Japanese Ambassador Kunio Umeda

The Japanese cherry blossom festival – Hanoi 2020 will be cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

The information was released at a working session between Chairman of the People’s Committee of Hanoi Nguyen Duc Chung and outgoing Japanese Ambassador Kunio Umeda on March 18.

The diplomat said that the pandemic developments may hamper the granting of work permits for Japanese labourers in Hanoi. Therefore, he proposed the city consider extending the validity of existing work permits.

Regarding the urban metro line No.2 project, he suggested the city leader to soon approve the Nam Thang Long – Tran Hung Dao route towards early construction.

Chung spoke highly of the ambassador’s contributions to bilateral cooperation, adding that both sides have coordinated closely in cultural exchanges and tourism and trade cooperation activities, and in implementing projects funded with Japan’s official development assistance (ODA).

He committed to creating favourable conditions to solve difficulties facing Japanese enterprises, showing his hope that Umeda, in his new position, will continue contributing to boosting bilateral relations./. VNA