times larger than the donation from South Korea, Vietnam's second biggest donor, at 412 million. Moreover, Japan's 2012 committed amount of donation to Vietnam raised to 3 billion dollars. Bilateral cooperation on defense has been enhanced since the Haiyang Shiyou 981 incident in 2014, as both countries have experienced territorial issues with China. In a speech in May 2014, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe affirmed that Japan would provide Southeast Asian nations its "utmost support" in their South China Sea territorial disputes. In March of that year the top leaders of both countries agreed to upgrade bilateral relations to be an "Extensive Strategic Partnership for Peace and Prosperity in Asia", this new relationship promised to let both countries collaborate more closely with each other in a large number of fields including politics, economics, national security, culture, and human exchange. It was informed by General Nguyen Chi Vinh, Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Defense that Vietnam expected to receive several coast guard ships from Japan in early 2015. The first of those vessels was delivered to the Vietnam Coast Guard in February 2015. In 2017 the Japanese Emperor Akihito and his wife Empress Michiko visited Hanoi as at the time Japan had become the largest donor of aid to Vietnam and a top investor into the country. As a part of the official visit Emperor Akihito met with a number of war children that were abandoned after the war ended. After listening to the tearful stories, Emperor Akihito said that he understood that the abandoned families of the Japanese soldiers had suffered many hardships after the war. On 19 October 2020, Japanese PM Yoshihide Suga visited his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyễn Xuân Phúc, and they agreed to cooperate on regional issues including the South China Sea, where China's growing assertiveness in disputed waters has drawn concern from neighbors. Following Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's high-profile visit to Vietnam in September 2021, Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi shortly followed afterwards with his visit, inking an accord to export Japanese-made defense equipment and technology to the Southeast Asian country and the two countries agreeing to boost cooperation amid China worries. On 28 September 2022, on the occasion of the state funeral for Shinzo Abe, Japan's former prime minister, in Tokyo, Vietnam's president Nguyễn Xuân Phúc was one of only seven heads of state which met with Japanese Emperor Naruhito. Japan Vietnam cooperation Japan and Vietnam Sign