Photo/Illutration Pozhydayeva Ganna, right, and her husband Lesechko Oleh in Tokyo’s Koto Ward on Jan. 7 (Kenichiro Shino)

Pozhydayeva Ganna used to own a beauty salon in Kyiv came to Japan with her two teenage daughters in the fall of 2022.

She said her daughters who survived a missile strike during the fighting told her that they do not want to return to Ukraine.

She already brought her husband Lesechko Oleh to Japan as well.

“I have decided to start a new chapter of my life in Japan,” she said.

With Feb. 24 marking two years since the Russian invasion began, the preliminary number of evacuees from Ukraine that Japan has accepted by Feb. 14 is 2,593, according to the Immigration Services Agency.

As of the same date, 2,098 remained in Japan. Of these, 1,799 have obtained “designated activities” status, which allows them to work in Japan for one year.

The number of evacuees from Ukraine who wish to settle in Japan has jumped from 24.7 percent to 39 percent over the past year, according to a survey conducted regularly by the Nippon Foundation.

It is believed that many of those who had said they wanted to stay in Japan for a while until the situation calmed down have given up on returning home after witnessing the prolongation of the war due to the failure of the reversal offensive.

To date, the Nippon Foundation has provided approximately 2,000 people with 1 million yen ($6,700) per year for living expenses. A total of five surveys have been conducted.

The Asahi Shimbun analyzed the survey results provided by the Nippon Foundation.

In the fifth survey, conducted from November to December of last year, 1,022 people responded.

The number of people who said, “I want to remain in Japan for as long as possible,” sharply increased, surpassing the number of people who said, “I want to remain in Japan until the situation calms down,” which had been the most common answer in the previous surveys.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), approximately 6.48 million people had fled the country as of Feb. 18, and an estimated 3.69 million people were displaced within Ukraine as of the end of last year.

The population of Ukraine is approximately 42 million, and a quarter of the population is still displaced in and outside the country, with no prospects for their return.

According to the UNHCR, the number of people who fled Ukraine to neighboring countries and elsewhere since the invasion has continued to grow, reaching about 8 million in February 2023.

Since then, some of those who were displaced are believed to have returned to Ukraine. However, UNHCR emphasized that many evacuees hope to return to their homes but are still unable to do so.

The organization will continue to strengthen support for displaced people at evacuation sites.

In light of the ongoing fighting, UNHCR said that it will continue to provide protection and humanitarian assistance to displaced persons within Ukraine. It also noted that people who have fled the country need support to integrate into society abroad and find work.

The latest numbers show that Germany has taken in 1.13 million displaced Ukrainians, Poland has taken 950,000, the Czech Republic has accepted 380,000, and Britain has welcomed 250,000. Another 1.21 million displaced Ukrainians are said to have fled into Russia.

In Japan, there are some challenges for evacuees like the former Ukrainian beauty shop owner who brought her two daughters and husband.

In the survey, 52.8 percent of the evacuees said they do not work. Of those who said they work, about 75 percent were doing part-time jobs.

“As the war drags on, more and more people are planning their lives in Japan," said Kunihiko Kabe, a researcher at Meiji Gakuin University’s Center for Liberal Arts. "How much education do they need and what skills and qualifications do they need to work? We need a place where we can discuss specific measures for financial independence tailored to their life stages.”

(This article was written by Yuri Murakami, Misato Nakayama and Kenichiro Shino.)

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