In the Netherlands, the EU-Japan Year of People-to-People Exchanges was opened at the Vincent van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. The "Japanese Evening in the Van Gogh Museum," which involved a lecture on the influence that Japanese ukiyo-e had on Van Gogh’s painting style and a tea ceremony, attracted many visitors. In March, a ceremony to commemorate the opening of the "Sieboldhuis," a museum dedicated to Philipp Franz von Siebold, a German man who lived in Japan during the Edo period as a physician at the Dutch Trading Post on Dejima Island and helped reveal Japan to Europe at the time, as well as an event to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the establishment of Japanese studies courses at Leiden University, the oldest and most prestigious university in the Netherlands, were simultaneously held in Leiden. These events made a widespread impression regarding the long history of exchanges which have been taking place between Japan and the Netherlands.

Local communities also greatly promoted grassroots exchanges by holding events that focused on Japan. At the Cherry Blossom Festival held in Amstelveen, the cherry trees, which were donated by the Japan Women’s Club in 2000 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the establishment of friendly relations between Japan and the Netherlands, were in full bloom. At the festival, exchanges took place through performances of Japanese music and chorus. During the "Japanese Festival," which was held in the city of Almere in September, a wide range of people experienced many aspects of Japan including sumo, Japanese food, a kimono fashion show, a manga café, and anime movie screenings.

In November, a closing event was held at the Amsterdam Westerkerk (west church). It consisted of performances of gagaku (Japanese traditional music and dance) performed by the Kitanodai Gagaku Orchestra and of Japanese music performed on one of the finest romantic organs existing in Europe as an attempt to integrate traditional Japanese music and western music. The exhibition of Japanese traditional pottery at the Museum Mesdag in Den Haag was held until the end of the year. It, together with the ukiyo-e exhibition held at the same time, attracted the attention of Dutch media, signifying the extent of the interest of the people of the Netherlands in Japanese traditional culture. They served in effect as events to mark the conclusion of the EU-Japan Year of People-to-People Exchanges.