About Us
Ukrainavi is a media outlet connecting the people, culture, society, and future of Ukraine to Japan and the world. We look at the daily life and creativity that the headlines of war alone don't show, while also reporting hardship and problems from facts and context. Rather than speaking one-sidedly, we aim to build a place where each side's voice can reach the other.
Why we started this outlet
Information about Ukraine available in Japanese tends to be skewed toward the state of the war and politics. It leaves out everyday life, ways of working, food, language, film, and the faces of the people living there. At the same time, some coverage prioritizes approachability so much that it makes hardship invisible.
We want to avoid both. Rather than competing on the speed of breaking news, we aim to be the outlet readers choose for the depth of its understanding, and for the fact that anyone can verify what we’ve written.
Where we stand
We stand with Ukraine. We do not bend the facts
This outlet does not stand with Russia; it stands with Ukraine. We do not rephrase Russia’s aggression as “a conflict between two sides” or “instability.” We treat the internationally recognized borders as Ukrainian territory, including Crimea and the four regions Russia has declared annexed. Taking a position does not change our standards for facts, sourcing, and corrections. We treat statements by the Ukrainian government as “the fact that it made this statement,” and we do not omit wrongdoing or controversy from within Ukraine’s own history.
Approachable, but not superficial
We do not write as though we understand something we don’t, for the sake of readability. We explain specialized terms the first time they appear.
We convey hope, but we do not idealize
We tell the stories of people looking forward. At the same time, we do not omit the hardship they are facing.
We respect the people we cover, but we are not uncritical
We treat a person’s dignity and safety as an editorial value. We keep that value separate from whether we support or oppose any particular policy or business. We also subject governments, local authorities, companies, and support organizations to scrutiny where necessary.
We do not lump people together
We do not infer a person’s character or views from nationality, language, or region alone. Nor do we treat Russian speakers or people from Russia as enemies as a category.
Our editorial commitments
We distinguish between fact, opinion, and advertising, and we show our sources and editorial responsibility. We prioritize the dignity and safety of those who cooperate with our reporting. In articles that involve our operator or its business partners, we disclose that relationship within the article. When we confirm an error, we make clear what it was and how it was corrected. We do not present unverified information as confirmed fact.
For details, see our Editorial Policy.
The five areas we cover
Every article is assigned one of these as its primary category. Region, theme, and reporting format are managed with separate tags.
- Culture & History — Food, language, film, literature, crafts, history. Written for cultural understanding, not to promote travel.
- People & Life — Interviews with those directly affected, education, communities, work, and the diaspora. We do not lock people into a fixed image of victim or hero.
- Understanding Society — Institutions, economic data, politics, the background to the war, and fact-checking misinformation. We do not cover live developments in the fighting.
- Business & Recovery — Industry, companies, talent, and cases of recovery and reconstruction. We present achievements and constraints side by side.
- Connections with Japan — Cultural exchange, the Ukrainian community in Japan, life in Japan, and joint research. We also report on the Japanese side’s experience.
Operations and structure
Editorial independence and our relationship with the operating companies
Every article ends with a short notice about our operating structure. Its full text is as follows.
Ukrainavi is published by 株式会社Kinobo and operated jointly with 合同会社Vyshytech and 合同会社illnoa.
株式会社Kinobo carries out offshore software development in collaboration with engineers in Ukraine; 合同会社Vyshytech works in cybersecurity (penetration testing and security-related development); and 合同会社illnoa supports trade and overseas expansion. The subjects of our articles sometimes overlap with these businesses.
For this reason, we show this relationship on every article, whatever its topic. Our editorial policy is that the business interests of the operating companies must not influence the content of our articles, and that we do not recommend any particular business partner, product or organization. Where an article involves a specific interest, we state it separately at the top of that article.
Ukrainavi is published by 株式会社Kinobo and co-operated with 合同会社Vyshytech and 合同会社illnoa. 株式会社Kinobo‘s business includes interpretation, offshore development, and reporting coordination; 合同会社Vyshytech‘s business is cybersecurity (penetration testing and security-related development); and 合同会社illnoa‘s business is trade and support for overseas expansion. Because there are situations where the outlet’s credibility and the operating companies’ business interests could conflict, we take the following measures.
- Because the businesses of all three operating companies relate to Ukraine, we display our operating structure at the end of every article, regardless of subject.
- For articles in which an operating company or affiliated company appears, or that cover a field where their business interests closely align, we additionally disclose the relationship at the start of the article.
- The planning, headline, and conclusions of such an article are checked by an editor independent of the staff responsible for that business.
- When independent review is not possible, we do not publish it as an editorial article, and instead label it as a “Notice from the operator” or as advertising.
- We do not omit facts that are unfavorable to us, or to a competitor, for business reasons.
Advertising is clearly labeled “Advertisement.” We never publish sponsored articles as editorial content. For details, see Advertising.