Hanoi (VNA) – Deputy Prime Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra has proposed that Japan’s Kanagawa prefecture and Vietnam shift cooperation in preventative healthcare from sharing experience to producing concrete outcomes.
During a reception in Hanoi on November 13 for Governor of Kanagawa prefecture Kuroiwa Yuji, Tra said that as Vietnam is entering a period of rapid population ageing, there is practical significance in studying and adopting a healthcare model that focuses on prevention and early detection of disease risks.
Suggesting a shift in cooperation, she said the first step is building model preventative healthcare centres, then assessing and scaling them in localities. She cast the plan as a way to lift care quality, especially for the elderly, cut disease risk and improve the quality of life.
With the Vietnam–Japan Comprehensive Strategic Partnership entering a new phase after General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee and President To Lam’s November 8–11 visit to Japan, Tra said the sides issued a joint vision statement, signed 11 cooperation documents and targeted 80 billion USD in bilateral trade by 2030. The top Vietnamese leader also visited Kanagawa during the trip.
The Deputy PM lauded Kanagawa’s role and flagged 2026 cooperation wins. The Hanoi–Kanagawa Economic and Trade Office opened on November 1. The prefecture has helped 33 local firms expand in Vietnam and drawn 23 Vietnamese firms to invest there. The two sides also signed a 2026–2029 memorandum of understanding on culture, sports and tourism to deepen people-to-people ties.
Kuroiwa, in reply, said his trip is built around the Kanagawa Festival 2026 series, including a Da Nang festival, an investment seminar in Hanoi and the Hanoi Kanagawa Festival on November 14–15. He pitched broader cooperation in the economy, investment, science – technology, healthcare, workforce, culture and tourism.
He introduced Kanagawa’s ME-BYO preventative healthcare model, which tracks the grey zone between the healthy and the sick, and aims to spot health shifts early and intervene fast to extend healthy life expectancy.
The host also said she wants Kanagawa to share expertise and back science, technology and innovation projects with Vietnam and twinned localities, adding these are priority areas Vietnam has earmarked as new-era growth drivers.
On investment, she said the Hanoi–Kanagawa office should act as a bridge for Japanese firms expanding in Vietnam and for Vietnamese firms operating in Kanagawa to scale up production and trade.
On manpower development, Tra asked Kanagawa to keep hiring Vietnamese workers, sharpen skills training and let returning workers who finish contracts staff Japanese companies investing in Vietnam.
She also called for concrete culture–tourism cooperation schemes and continued support for the more than 43,000 Vietnamese living, studying and working in Kanagawa.
Appreciating contributions made by Kuroiwa, who has served as Kanagawa Governor since 2011 and was awarded Vietnam’s Friendship Order in 2024, she wished that the prefecture will build on existing ties with practical projects that deepen the relationship./.
