Hanoi Report (Ryuko Saito)

Hanoi is the capital of Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, where I went from 1st to 4th November, 2013 in the overseas study tour of archival science. 

First of all, let me introduce general information about Viet Nam[i]; it has an area of 331,689 square kilometers like 0.88 times that of Japan, and a population of about 89.7 million including 6.45 million in Hanoi in 2012. As it is told a multiethnic country, Kinh (Vietnam's) dominates about 86 percent of them and the rest is divided into 53 ethnic minorities. The lowest average monthly income is about 200 million dong, in Japanese yen, about 7,270 yen in 2012. 

The official language is Vietnamese, but young people eagerly study English now. Public officers need to speak not only English but also French, because the official documents from mid-19th to the mid-20th were written in French under the reign of France. On the other hand, the foreign language education was mainly Russian since 1954 Geneva Agreements, up to 1975 the end of the Vietnam War[ii]. 

(1)    Memorial exhibition for 400 years between France and Vietnam in National 1^st Archives                                  

 

 (2)　Opera House, a symbol of France reign

Works Cited

[i] Ministry of Foreign Affairs HP, “Socialist Republic of Viet Nam”  http://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/area/vietnam/data.html#01 Web 5 Jun, 2014
[ii] Kiyoshi Haida “Viet Nam Language Education Policy” p.15

 http://www.tufs.ac.jp/common/fs/ilr/EU_kaken/_userdata//haida1.pdf Web 5 Jun, 2014

       When we visited Vietnam National University, Hanoi in the morning on 2nd November, the dean of the university delivered the opening address, which was so impressive as to hear that it was important for them to develop the deep and warm relationship with Japan. They would like to exchange through talking on matters of mutual interest in the perspective on politics, economy, culture, defense and well-being. He said young generation held a longing to Japan to have a great interest especially in Japanese products of Toyota and Honda, and also Japanese foods such as Sushi. I think what he meant at heart is political point of view as well as economic one through academic exchange. They are now in the face of the menace to China bordering not only with the northern mountainous area but also in East China Sea.

        After the greeting time, we had time to announce academic presentations each other. Those contents are skipped here.

(3) Vietnam National University, Hanoi 

        As you can see Prime Minister Abe visited Vietnam as the first country of his ASEAN visit in January 2013, he was very conscious of the relationship with Vietnam. Japanese investment cases are growing up.[iii] I looked at a bridge across the vast width "Red River" flowing from China, which was under construction to put a cable-suspended bridge. Tour guide said it was a yen-loan-financed project and Taisei Corporation was directly involved. Also the highway connecting the airport with Hanoi city was completed in Japanese ODA (Official Development Assistance). The total amount was 202.9 billion yen in 2012.[iv] In the industrial park along with the highway to the airport, I saw several signboards of Japanese company’s assembly factories such as Panasonic, Honda, Cannon and Toshiba.

Works Cited

[iii] JETRO “Recent investment environment and trends of Japanese companies in Vietnam, 2013” p.9 http://www.jetro.go.jp/world/seminar/86/material_86.pdf Web 6 Jun, 2014
 [iv] Same as #3 p.13
          There are a large number of bike-riders on the road. Passenger car is not popular yet. Being on the back of partner's bike is common. I often saw a bike riding with wife and a child in the back, in addition, putting an additional child to stand at the front of the rider on the bike. Three or four-seat biker is punished, if traffic accident is happened. There is few traffic signal and crossing. If we go across the street, we must lift a hand walking across slowly. Drivers and riders must stop to let a walker cross. I had an experience with such a dangerous Vietnam traffic rule. 

    https://drive.google.com/?authuser=0#my-drive 

       There are a lot of young people. The average age of Vietnam is 28 years old. They were born in the late 1980s since Doimoi deal[v]. Vietnam has so full of young labor forces that they will be expected to achieve the economic development near future. Recently, a newspaper reports that some of them will be invited as technical trainees to Japan[vi]. Generally speaking, Vietnamese have flexibility, seriousness and hand dexterity. They can make wonderful crafts. Though the contrast between rich and poor is found and the general standard of living is still lower than another ASEAN countries’,[vii] they look like to fill with energy. I would like to continue to have an interest in Vietnam in the future.

(4) Young people gathering in Kongzimiao (the Temple of Confucius

(5) Turtle hand-knitted. Pulling the tail, the measure comes out.

Works Cited

[v] In socialist countries, the economy is thought to shift from government to the people

[vi] Kensetsunews.com  “Training / Taisei Corporation starts training Vietnamese skills of Engineering in 2014”  http://www.kensetsunews.com/?p=23069  web7 Jun, 2014

[vii] Same as #3 p.25