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Leonid Riznyk and Yulia Naumenko are two of the 2,000 Ukrainian evacuees granted temporary residency and work rights in Japan. Both have benefited from the Japan-Ukraine Tech Bridge initiative, a scholarship programme established to help displaced Ukrainians find work and address worker shortages in Japan’s tech sector. The programme awards scholarships to asylum seekers to allow them to participate in Le Wagon Tokyo, an intensive coding boot camp.
Leonid Riznyk, 19, was able to secure a job at Tokyo Techies, an IT consulting and software development company, as a front-end engineer after completing the boot camp. Yulia Naumenko, 30, is currently exploring the job market after graduating from the boot camp. The programme was established by NGO Stand With Ukraine Japan, apparel tech company Virtusize, and investment firm Nextblue.
The programme has been created to address the shortage of IT specialists in Japan due to the country’s rapidly ageing population and rigid seniority-based wage system. According to figures from staffing agency Persol Career, the jobs-to-applicants ratio for IT professionals hit 10 to one in 2022, the biggest disparity of any industry measured.
Sasha Kaverina, co-founder of Stand With Ukraine Japan, was inspired to create the scholarship after returning to Tokyo from her homeland in March 2022. She was determined to do whatever she could to help her people and proposed the idea of a scholarship for Ukrainian evacuees to Nextblue and Virtusize. Yuichi Kori, a general partner at Tokyo-based Nextblue, and Andreas Ueno-Olausson, the CEO of Virtusize, both felt compelled to back the programme.
Kaverina believes that not only does the programme help Ukrainian refugees, but once they graduate it can also help tackle the shortage of IT specialists in Japan. Naumenko is currently applying for jobs in the tech sector and has an upcoming interview with a local tech company. Riznyk plans to stay in Japan for at least another five years and hopes that local tech companies will provide internships for Ukrainian refugees who want to be IT specialists.
The Japan-Ukraine Tech Bridge initiative is providing displaced Ukrainians with an opportunity to start a new life in Japan and make a valuable contribution to the country’s tech sector. It is hoped that the programme will help bridge the gap between Japan’s talent-starved tech sector and the influx of Ukrainian evacuees looking for work.