All articles
-
40 Minutes in Bucha, 2 Hours 40 Minutes of Summit Talks: Prime Minister Kishida’s Visit to Kyiv
On March 21, 2023, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visited Ukraine at President Zelensky's invitation, laying flowers in Bucha on the outskirts of Kyiv before holding about two hours and 40 minutes of summit talks. The two countries' relationship was upgraded to a “Special Global Partnership,” and the information protection agreement whose negotiations were agreed to begin that day took effect in June 2025. Drawing on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' records, this article follows that one day and what came after.
-
UNITED24 Has Raised $3.9 Billion, Over 90% of It Going to a Defense Account
UNITED24, the Ukrainian government's donation platform, shows it has raised about $3.93 billion between May 2022 and September 18, 2026. The money goes into one of six accounts at the National Bank of Ukraine by category, spent by the responsible ministry. This article looks at the Cabinet resolution behind it, the disclosure mechanism, and the inflow and spending figures in the reports.
-
Kalyna Is Not Gamazumi: Rendering Ukrainian Plant and Animal Names in Japanese
Kalyna, leleka, kashtan, soloveiko. Dictionary translations of Ukrainian plant and bird names often do not match the species that go by the same Japanese name. This article covers the method of using scientific names as a bridge to find the correct Japanese common name, 11 easily confused names, the 2021 Red Book list, and whether Ukraine has a legally designated "national flower."
-
Crimea in 2014, Four Oblasts in 2022: Japan Recognizes Neither “Annexation”
Russia unilaterally declared it was “incorporating” Crimea in 2014 and four oblasts in eastern and southern Ukraine in 2022. Each time, Japan's government has stated through a Foreign Minister's Statement that it does not recognize this, and at the UN General Assembly it has joined as a co-sponsor of, and voted in favor of, the resolutions on both occasions. This article checks Japan's position against the wording of the statements and the UN's own records.
-
Independence Day Is August 24, but Martial Law Has Suspended What “Holiday” Means in Ukraine
Ukraine's Independence Day marks the declaration of independence on August 24, 1991. But the first day observed as an “Independence Day” was actually July 16, tied to the 1990 declaration of sovereignty. This article explains, from the text of the law, the nine holidays set out in the Labor Code and how the provision on days off for holidays has not applied since martial law began in March 2022.
-
Galicia (Halychyna), Podilia, Slobozhanshchyna: Historical Region Names Beyond the Oblasts
Galicia (Halychyna), Volhynia, Bukovina, Donbas: region names that appear often in articles about Ukraine are distinct from the oblasts defined by the constitution. This article tables which present-day oblasts each one overlaps with, the origin of the name, regions that straddle borders, and land under occupation, based on the entries of an encyclopedia from the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies.
-
Minpaku’s Ukrainian Embroidery and Clothing Arrived During the Soviet Era
A search for "Ukraine" in the specimen catalog of the National Museum of Ethnology (Minpaku) in Osaka turns up 120 items — embroidered shirts, sashes, towels, and aprons. The region field for 119 of them reads "USSR, Ukraine," and 104 were acquired together in fiscal 1981. This article traces the database's records, including a bandura and a medal related to Chornobyl that fall outside the catalog search itself.
-
How Japan Established Relations with a New Country That Still Had Nuclear Weapons
Japan recognized Ukraine as a state on December 28, 1991, and opened diplomatic relations the following January 26. At the time, Ukraine still had strategic nuclear weapons left over from the Soviet Union. Drawing on Diet records and the Diplomatic Bluebook, this article traces what Japan asked for at the moment of recognition, the year before an embassy opened in Kyiv, cooperation on dismantling the nuclear weapons, and the 1995 visit by Ukraine's president.
-
The 14 Paintings Carried Out of a Burning Museum: Painter Maria Prymachenko
Painter Maria Prymachenko spent her life in a village in Kyiv Oblast painting fantastical animals and flowers. Immediately after the full-scale invasion, the museum in Ivankiv that held her work burned down, and the 14 paintings that staff and residents carried out were shown in Kyiv in September 2022. This article traces her life and work, the 100th anniversary of her birth in which UNESCO was involved, and the plan to rebuild the museum.
-
Kyiv Is 7 Hours Behind Japan, 6 in Summer: Ukraine’s Time and Daylight Saving
Under a 1996 Cabinet resolution, Ukraine moves its clocks on the last Sundays of March and October. The time difference with Japan is 7 hours in winter and 6 in summer. A law passed in 2024 to abolish daylight saving time has not been signed as of September 2026. This article also looks at how Ukraine broke from Moscow time in 1990, and at the clocks used in occupied territory.