Kato Mitsuru, a 61-year-old retiree from Japan, on Sunday received his master’s degree in Vietnamese studies from Vietnam Japan University in Hanoi.

The university held a ceremony to award bachelor’s degrees to 32 graduates and master’s degrees to 36 others.

Among the graduates, Kato excitedly talked about his passion for learning about Vietnamese culture.

Kato told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that before joining the master’s degree program in Vietnam, he used to work in the Southeast Asian country for seven years.

He first came to Vietnam in 2004 and lived in the country from 2008 to 2009.

He was a member of a cycling club in Vietnam and cycled to over 20 well-known destinations, including Sa Pa Town and Y Ty Commune in Lao Cai Province, Huong Pagoda in Hanoi, and the Hung Kings Temple in Phu Tho Province, all in northern Vietnam. 

“I have lived and worked in many countries. Vietnam is the last place [I came] for work before retiring and I realized that I love Vietnam a lot," the Japanese said.

Vietnamese culture treasures family affection, which is similar to Japanese culture, so he found it close and suitable for himself, Kato shared. 

He began learning Vietnamese in 2008 but he finds the language difficult, especially pronunciation.

In 2022, a year after he retired, Kato decided to enrol in the master’s degree program at Vietnam Japan University under the Vietnam National University-Hanoi.

He was the oldest student and spoke Vietnamese worst in his class, but he said he did not feel ashamed. He was happy instead as he could study with young people, thus having more energy and motivation.

“I’m old and almost out of energy. When I was studying with young Vietnamese people, I was inspired by them," Kato said. 

“Young people are smart and grasp information and knowledge quickly, so I could learn from their efforts in studying.”

He recalled his first days in the classroom. Although he could listen to and write in Vietnamese well, the language still posed a significant challenge for him.

He recounted an incident where a Vietnamese professor spoke so quickly that he could not keep up.

Kato said that pronouncing Vietnamese is particularly difficult, especially during presentations in front of the class.

While he could listen to and write in Vietnamese well, he had not yet achieved fluency in speaking the language.

Earlier, Kato impressed the university’s thesis evaluation council when he defended his master’s thesis on the current state of Vietnamese laborers under contracts in Japan and the factors influencing their experiences.

His biggest challenge was doing the thesis in Vietnamese.

However, he completed it with great efforts.

He found that Vietnamese laborers and apprentices in Japan are vulnerable.

They are exploited and face multiple difficulties in protecting their legitimate benefits, partly due to their poor Japanese language skills.

As a result, Kato emphasized that relevant agencies in both Vietnam and Japan need to come up with appropriate programs to help Vietnamese laborers and apprentices improve their Japanese.

Companies helping Vietnamese laborers go to Japan for work should be required to adjust costs to match Vietnamese regulations and not to place a burden on the laborers.

The Japanese government should work with local enterprises which seek to hire Vietnamese laborers and ask them to cover all service costs for the workers.

“I am over 60 and have retired. I study Vietnamese culture to gain more knowledge, enrich my understanding, and satisfy my interest in the culture," he said.

“If possible, I want to establish a company to support Vietnamese students and laborers who plan to come to Japan for study and work and vice versa.

"I want to become a bridge between the two sides.”

At present, he hopes to join a PhD program in Vietnamese or Japanese studies, Kato shared his plan.

According to Prof. Vu Minh Giang, chairman of the Science and Training Council at the Vietnam National University-Hanoi, Kato was a special student of the master’s course as he joined it in his senior years.

Kato was enthusiastic about studying Vietnam and Vietnamese laborers working in Japan, Giang noted.

“At the beginning, I was worried that Kato might find Vietnamese a barrier. After two years, he overcame all difficulties to successfully defend his master’s thesis,” Giang added.

During the thesis defense, Kato told Giang that he wanted to continue studying in Vietnam to contribute to improving the studying and working conditions for Vietnamese students and laborers in Japan.

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