Photo/Illutration Vaas Feniks Nokard (Provided by Ruski Telegraf Agency)

USHIKU, Ibaraki Prefecture--A Russian being held in an immigration detention facility here who swam about 20 kilometers in August to defect to Japan said he feels relieved after leaving his stressful life in Russia.

At the end of an interview with The Asahi Shimbun at the East Japan Immigration Control Center, Vaas Feniks Nokard, who is seeking asylum in Japan, flashed a smile and said he was feeling better in Japan than in Russia.

“Though I was under stress while in Russia, I'm feeling a bit relieved now,” Nokard, 38, said on Oct. 6 during the 30-minute interview.

Kimiko Tanaka, who heads a civic group that supports foreign detainees at the facility in Ushiku, accompanied an Asahi reporter to the interview. Nokard is one of about 20 individuals currently detained at the facility located north of Tokyo.

It is not rare for some foreigners to be detained for several years, Tanaka said.

"I believe what Nokard needs first is assistance from lawyers,” she said.

When asked by Tanaka how her group could help him, Nokard said he wanted to get a copy of “Minna no Nihongo,” a textbook he said he used to learn Japanese while in Russia.

Nokard, who added that immigration officials used an automatic translation device to communicate with him, said he wants to study Japanese all over again. All he can understand is some hiragana and katakana, he said in broken Japanese.

Nokard said he is confined alone in a large room. The space measures 32.4 square meters.

“I have a TV but all the broadcasts are in Japanese,” he said. “I can't understand the programs.”

Nokard said all the money he had on him was 12,000 yen ($107). The most expensive thing he had bought at the detention center was a phone card to make international calls.

“Cards cost 1,000 yen each, and I've bought two,” he said.

He said he has called his mother in his hometown four times since he has been detained there.

“I've called my mother four times because I can speak only for 18 minutes with a single card,” he said. “My birthday is on Oct. 24, but my mother can't call me. So, I'll call her instead, and I'm going to buy two more cards for that.”

He called his mother as he knows her phone number by heart.

He said he has no numbers for other relatives and friends as they were in his smartphone, which immigration officials seized.

Nokard in mid-August swam to Shibetsu in northeastern Hokkaido just across from Kunashiri island, one of four disputed islands administered by Russia but also claimed by Japan.

He was first taken into custody by Hokkaido police in Shibetsu town and later transferred to the Sapporo Regional Immigration Services Bureau of the Japanese government’s Immigration Services Agency.

In an interview in Hokkaido's capital, Sapporo, in early September, he said he decided to flee Russia due to his frustration over President Vladimir Putin’s long-running regime.

In the middle of September, he was moved to the agency’s East Japan Immigration Control Center in Ushiku.

Nokard is originally from Izhevsk, the Udmurt Republic, in the Urals in western Russia, known for manufacturing the AK-47 assault rifle.

He later moved to Kunashiri and made a living by doing part-time work near Golovnino in the southern part of the island.

Japan granted asylum to 47 individuals in 2020, according to the Immigration Services Agency.

In addition, 44 individuals were permitted to stay in Japan on humanitarian grounds although they were denied refugee status.

If Japanese authorities reject his asylum request, Nokard hopes to go to a third country such as Poland.

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