Photo/Illutration Olivia Zhyblovska uses an interpretation app to communicate with classmates at Izumi Elementary School in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward. (Wataru Sekita)

Ukrainians who made the gut-wrenching decision to give up everything they knew for sanctuary in Japan following the Russian invasion seem by and large to be adjusting to the different pace of life here.

Lorina Shuta, who arrived in Tokyo on April 3 with her 2-year-old son, Roman, and 58-year-old mother, Olena Isak, summed up what many evacuees are now probably feeling.

“If we had not been able to come to Japan, I would still be looking up at the sky and praying that bombs did not fall from there.”

Olivia Zhyblovska, 11, and her 8-year-old brother Yan, arrived from Kyiv in late March along with their mother and older sister. Their mother opted for Japan because she had a childhood friend who lives here.

Olivia and Yan are now enrolled in the Chiyoda Ward-run Izumi Elementary School, helped by an interpretation software app installed by a teacher.

Teachers at the school made the children welcome by presenting them with school bags once used by their own offspring. The interpretation app is the sole means the children have in communicating with their classmates.

“I am very happy because my friends talk to me and the teachers are kind,” Olivia said. “I also like the delicious school lunch.”

Her younger brother was delighted that so many books are available at the school.

A total of 664 Ukrainians have come to Japan since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.

While many have relatives or friends living in Japan, others have only very tenuous ties to Japan.

Although Lorina, 27, had no friends or relatives in Japan, coming here seemed like her best option seeing as she worked at the Japanese Embassy in Kyiv.

Her husband chose to remain in Ukraine.

Lorina said she relied on a Japanese living here who was introduced to her through a staff member at a Japanese language school in Kyiv to be her guarantor for a short-term visa.

After arriving in Tokyo, the family stayed at a hotel provided by the metropolitan government, but on April 22 they moved into a public housing unit. They will have to pay for their food and utilities from now on.

The support program put together by the central government is essentially for Ukrainians with no friends or relatives in Japan. But because Lorina has a guarantor in Japan, she and her family, in principle, are not eligible for such support.

Realizing that the family was about to run out of funds, the nongovernmental organization Association for Aid and Relief, Japan (AAR) provided a special disbursement to help tide them over.

Lorina initially thought the evacuation from Kyiv would only last a few days, so she only brought a baby carriage and a few items of clothing.

Because she worked at the Japanese Embassy, Lorina can speak, read and write Japanese. She hopes to find work using her linguistic skills as she also speaks Russian and English.

She has switched her visa to one that is good for one year and allows her to work in areas specified by the government.

“I have to find a day care facility for my son so that I can work,” she said.

(This article was compiled from reports by Wataru Sekita and Takuya Miyano.)

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