We're excited to announce that we've launched scholarship support for Ukrainian refugee students

the purpose of the Japan-Ukraine Tech Bridge is that building opportunities for business collaboration and mutual benefit in short- and long-term for Japan’s and Ukraines tech sectors.

Over 6.5 million Ukrainians have been forced to flee the war and 1000 of them have come to Japan as refugees. The journey to return to a normal life will be long but the process can be started already here in Japan, to give them the best possible chance of a successful future. The initiative has identified the Tech sector and the strong IT talent base in Ukraine, as well as the need for such talents in Japan, as one potential key to mutual benefit.

‍

‍

As the first step, a Scholarship has been set up with the aim of providing support for refugees from Ukraine recently relocated to Japan and enabling them to learn technical skills and become software developers. 10 scholarships provided by sponsors will be awarded to Ukrainian refugees, for an admission to the full-time web development course in Tokyo.

The first recipient of the Scholarship has been announced as Oleksandr Komakha, a 27 years old Ukrainian refugee who is eager to enter the IT industry and build a new career in Japan.

Here is a comment from “Alex” Oleksandr Komakha.

I really appreciate the opportunity to join the Japan Ukraine Tech Bridge Scholarship program. It is a great chance for me to challenge in my career and also an opportunity for me to give back something to Japanese tech industry.‍Joining the The Le Wagon program I will have an opportunity to learn the latest tech and train as a full stack developer. I would like to to work in Japan and bring bring all the modern technologies to Japanese tech companies after my training is complete. The main reason that me and my wife came to Japan as refugees is that we both studied Japanese in University and we speak some Japanese so we are hoping to connect here in Japan and hopefully stay for the long term.

【The message from Andreas Ueno-Olausson, CEO, Virtusize】

The Japan Ukraine Tech Bridge project is an historic opportunity for Japan and Ukraine to create a mutually beneficial partnership in the area of tech. The scholarship we are providing to Ukrainian refugees in Japan will help these students to get employment within the tech sector in Japan and become future human bridges - linking Japanese tech companies to software developers in one of the world’s leading software development hubs.

We have selected one scholarship recipient, Komakha Oleksandra, who will be studying web development in the intensive program provided by LeWagon from July to September. We are very hopeful to work with him after the training program and hope to offer him and other refugees the chance to work with us. We already have an existing team of outsourced software developers in Ukraine so this will only further strengthen our connection to Ukraine and its great engineers and talents.