Many Ukrainians are struggling in Japan, unlike the “flashy news coverage” that Japan is helping Ukrainian people. The reality is that we only have less than 2000 evacuees and the government has welcomes only 200 people so far since March. Furthermore, the Immigration of Japan has no organized plan for the replacement of the Ukrainians that they end up sending them to local places with no one to talk to and unless you are one of the lucky ones (usually they are through University exchange programs), you end up in local places and many of the Ukrainian evacuees I am teaching Japanese to are depressed and even when there is a news about them, Japanese media ONLY reports misreading information that they are doing well and being happy. Sure, there are many who got to stay in Tokyo or Osaka/Kyoto in large cities are doing okay, but more than half the evacuees are sent to local places with the people with the average age of 50 years old who speak no English at all. As a result, they are depressed and seeing psychiatrist or seeking for counselling. Also, getting a job without knowing Japanese is extremely difficult and most evacuees do not come with Japanese knowledge in advance and they were in fact told in Poland when they come to Japan that “as long as you speak decent English, you will be fine in Japan” which is not the case at all. Ask any Ukrainian evacuees in Japan, they will tell you the same. While it may be true that some Ukrainian evacuees are having satisfied life in Japan, MANY are suffering from depression since they got to Japan. JSUS programs tell students to report any complains or concerns but when the students report complaints, the schools belong to JSUS does not report it to the top, and they are usually dismissed because “we are busy now and cannot deal with your issues”. There was an article on Hitachi Sakura Japanese Language School which is one of the JSUS schools, where they have accepted two Ukrainian students and on the interviews the school only said positive comments WITHOUT asking how the students are actually feeling. This is a firsthand information I have heard and the Ukrainian students at that school were surprised that the news was reported in a positive tone, when in fact they were crying and depressed every day for the sheer lack of support from school. In short, they were used as a propaganda for the school to say “Look, we are doing great things!” but even the picture posted on the published article does not add up when I asked the Ukrainian students – in the photos, they are smiling, as if they are enjoying the school life, and it was described as such, but in fact, that picture was taken at a different time and the conversation was about a trifle matter about what food they like in Japan, etc… There is also a school in Kumamoto Prefecture, which accepted two Ukrainian students (again JSUS school) but since it was in the country side and all the other students in the class were Asians who only spoke in their own tongues and grouped together even during the classroom (the same with the Hitachi school in Ibaraki) that the students felt extremely isolated to the point of depression. At this school, the principal tried to help them but the school manager vehemently disagreed, and the school principal got fired and the Ukrainian students at that school were left behind. Never to be brought it up again. This is just the story about JSUS who “volunteered” to help the Ukrainians but in schools in country side, this type of treatment is rampant. I wish Japanese media report the REALITY of how the Ukrainian evacuees are treated on both sides. The government is even less interested in helping the evacuees, as they send out the evacuees to country sides and leave the control up to the community in that small prefecture – and they cannot argue against the government.
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