A Vietnam-Japan cultural week has been held by the Hue Medical and Pharmacy University in the former imperial city of Hue to celebrate the 40 years of friendship between Vietnam and Japan.

The highlight of the week, lasting from September 9-14, is the opening of the gastrointestinal endoscopy centre at the Hue Medical and Pharmacy University.

The centre is expected to benefit thousands of patients in the central region.

Academic delegates from Nagoya University, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Kobe University and Osaka University will take part in events to spotlight the academic cooperation between the two countries.

These also include a photo exhibition, an opening ceremony for a health service centre and two seminars that gather leading Japanese medical scientists and professors.

The seminars aim to promote medical training and research cooperation between the Hue university and its Japanese counterparts.

Japan 's Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine has donated four machine systems for advanced diagnosis services: an endoscopic ultrasound device, a double-balloon endoscope, a gastroscope that can diagnose digestive cancer in its early stages and a trans-nasal endoscopy machine.

These are the newest technologies that "could assist Vietnam in making its most advanced diagnoses of stomach cancer prevention ever," said associate professor Dr. Tran Van Huy, President of the Central Vietnam Association for Digestive Endoscopy.

Vietnamese doctors have also been sent to Nagoya University for training to run the advanced centres.-VNA