A Japan-Ukraine Timeline ── From the 1965 Sister-City Partnership to Yen Loans

Ties between Japan and Ukraine began between cities, before they began between states. The City of Yokohama and the City of Odesa became sister cities in 1965; Kyoto City and the City of Kyiv, in 1971. This article puts into a timeline the events for which a date is given in the text of materials from the Japanese government, the Ukrainian government or its agencies, Japanese municipalities, and the Diet’s records, and for figures that are easy to misread — support amounts, the number of people who have come as evacuees — it attaches what, exactly, each figure is counting.

What This Timeline Includes

What is included here are events for which a date is written in the body of a document issued by the parties themselves — the Japanese government, the Ukrainian government or its agencies, Japanese municipalities, or Diet records. The dates of state recognition, the opening of diplomatic relations, the opening of embassies, bilateral treaties and arrangements, and visits by dignitaries follow the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ “Ukraine: Basic Data” (dated September 3, Reiwa 8 / 2026).

Events whose date we could not confirm from a source are not included. Not being listed does not mean it did not happen. The main things left out are listed in the “What We Could Not Confirm” section at the end of this article.

Cities Were Connected Before States Were

Arranged from earliest, the top of the timeline is not diplomacy, but municipalities.

Yokohama and Odesa in 1965; Kyoto and Kyiv in 1971 — both more than twenty years before Japan and Ukraine had diplomatic relations, when Ukraine was still part of the Soviet Union. According to Kyoto City’s own account, the idea for the partnership began in 1958, when the Soviet ambassador to Japan at the time raised it with the Mayor of Kyoto, and it was reached after roughly ten years of exchange leading up to the 1971 partnership. Kyoto City states that from April 1, 2022 it changed its documentary spelling to “Kyiv (Kiev).”

As for the date diplomatic relations were opened, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ basic data gives “January 26, 1992,” and the same date can also be confirmed independently from the Diet’s records of the time: the House of Representatives plenary session of January 28, 1992, in Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa’s policy speech.

On January 26th, we established diplomatic relations with Ukraine and four other republics.

Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa’s Policy Speech, House of Representatives plenary session, January 28, 1992 (National Diet Library, Minutes of the Diet Search System)

Both are, and only are, records that “the Japanese government stated this.” Still, the same date appears in two sources of different character — today’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs page and the minutes of the time — which is enough to anchor a single line of a timeline. State recognition came the year before, on December 28, 1991, confirmed only from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ basic data.

A 1986 Treaty Was Still Alive in 2025

Of everything on this timeline, the item with the most direct effect today on Japanese companies and individuals is the tax rules. The tax treaty between Japan and Ukraine was, for a long time, the “Japan-Soviet tax treaty.” The treaty between Japan and the Soviet Union that took effect on November 27, 1986 continued to be used, as it had been succeeded by Ukraine after the Soviet Union’s dissolution. In the Ministry of Finance’s list of tax treaties (as of June 26, 2026), Ukraine is still listed among the countries noted as “succeeding the treaty with the former Soviet Union.”

This has now been comprehensively revised. The new treaty was signed on February 19, 2024 and took effect on August 1, 2025. Its provisions on withholding tax apply to amounts payable on or after January 1, 2026. In other words, by the time you are reading this article, the new tax rates are already in effect.

The National Tax Agency’s pamphlet also lists changes beyond the maximum tax rates. The 183-day count for the short-term visitor exemption was revised to be based on “any 12-month period beginning or ending in the taxable year of the other Contracting State.” The exemption is now limited to remuneration from employment, with remuneration for independent personal services no longer covered. The two-year exemption for individuals teaching at universities and similar institutions has been abolished (with transitional relief for anyone entitled to the old treaty’s benefit as of the effective date). And a Ukrainian resident wishing to receive a reduced rate or exemption must submit an “Application Form for Income Tax Convention” through the withholding agent, by the day before the first payment received on or after January 1, 2026.

After February 24, 2022

After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, 2022, Japan’s actions began to be preserved as dated official announcements. From here on, primary sources become easier to find.

Yen-Denominated Support Figures Are “Ceilings,” Not Amounts Disbursed

Lines with a monetary figure are the easiest to misread on this timeline. Let’s set the two yen loans side by side.

Both are “loan ceilings” — the maximum amount fixed by contract, not the amount actually paid out. The 2025 figure of ¥471.9 billion differs in character from earlier yen loans in that the funds for repayment are said to come not from Japanese or Ukrainian public finances, but from revenue generated within the EU. Simply lining up the figures and saying “Japan’s support has grown” erases this distinction.

The dollar-denominated “cumulative support total” is a little trickier. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ basic data puts it in a single sentence: since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Japan has “announced or provided” a total of approximately USD 20 billion in support in the humanitarian, fiscal, and recovery/reconstruction fields (as of the end of 2025). What must not be missed is exactly that phrase, “announced or provided.” How much is announced-only and how much has actually been disbursed, and how the breakdown works, cannot be told from this one sentence alone. The reference point is also the end of 2025 — not the present. If you cite this figure, you need to carry the conditions “as of end-2025,” “announced or provided,” and “total across humanitarian, fiscal, and recovery/reconstruction” along with the amount itself.

Exports Have Recovered; Imports Have Not

Bilateral trade figures can be confirmed by calendar year in the Ministry of Finance’s Trade Statistics (General Trade Statistics), in the “Time-Series Table of Exports and Imports by Region (Country).” Exports and imports are both given from Japan’s point of view.

Exports and imports have moved differently. Japan’s exports fell to roughly 56% of the previous year’s level in 2022, then recovered close to the 2021 level in 2023 and 2024. Imports from Ukraine have not recovered: against ¥79.92 billion in 2021, 2024 was ¥11.76 billion, roughly one-seventh. Summing this up as simply “Japan-Ukraine trade” and looking only at the combined total erases this asymmetry. Note that as of this article’s confirmation date, no finalized calendar-year figure for 2025 had been published.

The Number of Evacuees, and the Name of the System

The Immigration Services Agency of Japan (ISA) publishes and regularly updates the number of people who have come to Japan from Ukraine.

What must not be conflated here is the name of the system. The status of residence held by Ukrainian evacuees Japan has accepted is “Designated Activities,” a separate procedure from refugee recognition. “Evacuee,” “refugee,” and “person requiring complementary protection” are used with similar meanings in everyday language, but under Japanese law they refer to distinct systems. The figures in the table above are the number of people the Immigration Services Agency counts as “Ukrainian evacuees,” not the number of people recognized as refugees.

How to Use This Timeline

What is arranged here are only events that can be traced, line by line, to a source. Put the other way around, an event not listed here is not one that failed to happen. When you cite a single date, keep it in a form where you yourself, or the person citing it, can confirm which document’s body it came from. A timeline is also the format in which a gap in sourcing is least likely to stand out.