Candidates making procedures to enter exam rooms (Photo: vov.vn)
The exam attracted over 560 candidates of different age groups, a surge from the previous exam, which drew 379 candidates.
It included six levels, from basic and advanced. Candidates who were unsure of their level were allowed to register for two exams.
Mr. Yanagisawa Yoshio, Chairman of the Exam Board, said candidates of the exam came from 27 localities across Japan, including prefectures near Tokyo such as Chiba, Saitama and Kanagawa, as well as northern and western prefectures like Hokkaido, Okinawa, Aomori and Kumamoto.
The average age of the candidates was 40, with the oldest being 82 years old and the youngest 15 years old.
Particularly, a significant number of Japanese people working in Vietnam returned to Tokyo to take the exam.
Mr. Fujino Masayoshi, Chairman of the association of Southeast Asian nations’ foreign language exchange in Japan, said that Vietnam and Japan have a long-standing friendship.
Aiming to deepen relations in fields of economy and culture, the association organized the only Vietnamese language proficiency exam in Japan to increase the number of Japanese people who can speak Vietnamese fluently and enhance people-to-people exchanges. In addition, learning the language of a country is learning about its culture and history, which will contribute to the development of bilateral relations.
Mr. Ise Yoji, Chairman of the Bunsai Gakuen Non-Profit Education Foundation, said that the bilateral ties between Vietnam and Japan have been growing strongly in 2018 with the latest State-level visit to Japan by State President Tran Dai Quang.
He added that the two countries had historical exchanges hundreds of years ago and both have long-standing culture and history. The economic ties of the two countries have been developing strongly, with many Japanese firms investing in Vietnam, while the number of Vietnamese studying in Japan is increasing dramatically.
With the desire to contribute to the cooperation exchange, the Southeast Asian nations’ foreign language exchange in Japan has chosen Vietnamese as the first language in which to organize a national-scale proficiency exam.
Chairman of the Bunsai Gakuen Non-Profit Education Foundation hoped the exam will attract more candidates.
Mr. Pham Quang Hung, First Secretary of the Vietnamese Embassy in Japan, said that the large number of candidates showed that Vietnam- Japan relations are developing well.
He added that the Vietnamese Embassy in Japan would support to help the exam to be more objective and accurately assess the competence of the candidates, as well as coordinate with Vietnamese faculties of Vietnam’s universities to further improve the quality of the exam.
According the plan, the third exam will be held on June 23rd, 2019./.