Far and Near: Beneficiaries From Japan Actively Help Print Media In Ukraine

Public figure and editor Jun’ichi Kowaka and his associates from the Japan Offspring Fund, whose office is located in the Tokyo agglomeration, have never been to the newsroom of Ukraina Moloda newspaper. In the same way, residents of the southern prefectures of the Land of the Rising Sun — employees of the Green Coop Corporation — had not previously met with newspapermen in Kyiv newsrooms. But after the war, capital media people believe there will definitely be such an opportunity for foreign partners. When friends of Ukraine from the cities of Saitama, Fukuoka, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Kumamoto can visit Kyiv, they will be welcomed here as welcome guests.

Journalists from the creative union, veterans of the press, newspapermen from Ovruch in the Zhytomyr Region, and other colleagues from a number of regions are grateful to the Japanese, who were among the first to support the Ukrainian press since 2022 and continue to help it. During the aggressive war waged by Moscow, many printed publications found themselves in trouble due to economic difficulties. Then, not only colleagues from European organizations in the information sphere came to the rescue, but also Japanese friends who were rallied by Jun’ichi Kowaka. Thanks to international cooperation, more than three dozen newsrooms in the front-line and de-occupied territories of Ukraine resumed publishing their periodicals. — By a joint decision of the partners — the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine and the All-Ukrainian Charitable Foundation Journalist Initiative — part of the Japanese financial donations went primarily to editorial offices in Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and some other regions, — said Liudmyla Meh, the founder and president of the Journalist Initiative Foundation. — Mr. Kowaka‘s personal efforts were appreciated: according to our proposal, he became a participant in the national competition Charity Ukraine-2022 and won the special nomination – Media and Charity.

“The other day, the authoritative newspaper Ukraine Moloda was also supported by Japanese donations,” said Sergiy Tomilenko, the President of the NUJU. “For this help, journalistic associations are primarily grateful to the Green Coop Corporation. Our cooperation with the main European donors also continues. In total, over the past two years, funding has been allocated for more than 400 salaries of media workers — participants in the union’s creative projects. Also, the total monthly circulation of front-line media in Ukraine is 350,000 copies. This means that our joint efforts are effective and that partnership cooperation and international solidarity are very important, as important as the journalistic profession itself.”

Serhii Shevchenko

Ukraine Moloda newspaper’s website