Stand with Ukraine Japan, Le Wagon Tokyo, Virtusize and Nextblue have announced the launch of the Japan-Ukraine Tech Bridge initiative, with the purpose of building opportunities for business collaboration and mutual benefit in short- and long-term for Japan’s and Ukraines tech sectors.
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. Ten 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 year-old Ukrainian refugee who is eager to enter the IT industry and build a new career in Japan.
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.
“This is not just a charity but an amazing business opportunity for Japanese tech companies to get involved with one of the world’s strongest tech talent pools. We want to build a bridge between Japan and Ukraine that is mutually beneficial and can lead to growth in both countries,” said Yuichi Kori, Partner at tech investment fund NextBlue.
Ukraine is one of the world’s strongest IT talent bases and already works with countless leading global tech companies. However, in Japan there is still limited knowledge of the massive opportunity of working with software engineers from Ukraine. The Japan-Ukraine Tech Bridge is working to change this and provide strong mutual benefits to Ukraine and Japan at a time where tech talents are a much sought after resource across the globe,” concurred Ukrainian Sasha Kaverina, who serves as Partnerships & Community Manager at Le Wagon Tokyo.
Among the companies that already joined the initiative and will provide scholarships are Virtusize, Vacan Inc., SecureNavi, KiZUKAI, NextBlue and Reality Accelerator.
Mrs Savina, the initiator of this project, may be reached at sasha.kaverina[at]lewagon.org
Source: https://www.lewagon.com/blog/japan-ukraine-tech-scholarship
