Vietnamese people in Japan

[6] The oldest known diplomatic contact between the two countries were when a letter was found dating from 1591 when the Vietnamese vice-minister wrote to the “King of Japan”, they subsequently exchanged gifts.

Taking pity on these merchants who were suffering far from home, the king of Annam had ordered the Van Ly marquis (Văn Lý hầu) Tran, along with the duke of Thu county (Thư quận công) and the Quang Phu marquis (Quảng Phú hầu), to distribute rations to the victims.

[8][9] However, the community of Vietnamese people in Japan is dominated by Vietnam War refugees and their families, who compose about 70% of the total population.

[10] The policy of accepting foreign migrants marked a significant break from Japan's post-World War II orientation towards promoting and maintaining racial homogeneity.

[4] Guest workers began to follow the refugees to Japan in the so-called "third wave" of Vietnamese migration beginning in the 1990s.

As contract workers returned home to Vietnam from the countries of the former Eastern Bloc, which by then had begun their transition away from Communism, they began to look for other foreign destinations in which they could earn good incomes, and Japan proved attractive due to its nearby location and high standard of living.