NAGASAKI -- 2000 marks the 400th anniversary of ties between Japan and the Netherlands, and various events are slated for the year to fete the shared history.

"We want to make the most of existing establishments related to the Netherlands here," said Kazuhiko Iwasaki, the Nagasaki Prefectural Government planning division chief in charge of the Nagasaki Holland Year 2000.

The link between the two nations dates to April 19, 1600, when the Dutch trading ship De Liefde -- the remaining vessel from a five-ship expedition that departed Rotterdam in June 1598 -- reached Japan, on the coast of Usuki, in what is now Oita Prefecture.