Tokyo's Russian dissident community

Japan is one of the destinations for the relokanty who left Russia after the invasion of Ukraine, also due to the presence of a group of compatriots particularly committed to the opposition to Putin and to the demonstrations in favour of peace.

Tokyo (AsiaNews) - Many Russians have left the country since the invasion of Ukraine began, and one of the best options for finding another place to live is Japan, especially for those living in the eastern regions of Siberia, due to its geographical proximity but also because of Tokyo's clear position condemning the war.

The Russian community in Japan is in fact particularly committed to peace demonstrations, and the website Ljudi Bajkala has collected some testimonies in this context.

Nika, a woman from the Siberian city of Irkutsk where she studied at the only language institute in the whole of the Russian Far East, and who has therefore become a Japanese interpreter, gives a voice to many of her compatriots.

She moved to Japan thirty years ago, and when the conflict in Ukraine began, Nika was among the promoters of the first public actions condemning the war and Vladimir Putin's regime. She also helped Japanese journalists publish documentaries and reports illustrating the position of the Russians who had arrived here as relokanty, but also of the not inconsiderable number of Ukrainian refugees.

In Japan Nika obtained a doctorate in linguistics, married a Japanese man and teaches the local language to Ukrainian children who have arrived with their families. She says that ‘in Japanese historical tradition there is a prevailing sense of isolation from the rest of the world, and they are not used to welcoming foreigners and refugees en masse’, even if during the Vietnam War they opened up to the arrival of thousands of Vietnamese, Cambodians and Laotians who were trying to escape the communist regime.

They were called ‘boat people’, because they travelled from Indochina on fragile boats, and they were also granted Japanese citizenship, which was not given to the Kurds, Africans or Iranians.

After the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, the Japanese declared that they were ready to welcome Ukrainians, and over two thousand of them immediately came; they are always specified as ‘Ukrainian refugees’, distinguishing them from others less acceptable to Japan. Most of them live in Tokyo, in council flats assigned to them, with medical assistance and free telephone lines.

The children are enrolled in local schools, and Nika is committed to helping them adapt, and not only linguistically; the refugees from Mariupol suffer from post-traumatic syndromes, many have spent days in the shelters under bombardment. There are also those who support Putin's Russia, they remain segregated in their homes and sometimes criticise the Japanese who have welcomed them.

Together with other Russians, Nika had started to organise protest demonstrations even before the war, since the unjust arrest of the governor of Khabarovsk, Sergej Furgal, in 2020, and to support the figure and actions of Aleksej Naval'nyj, who died in a labour camp just a year ago.

These public actions are also an attempt to raise awareness about the situation in Hong Kong, which China is suffocating under its authoritarian regime. The Japanese police don't prohibit marches and gatherings in the squares, but they do ask for a certain level of discretion, and they didn't allow people to lay flowers in honour of Naval'nyj in front of the Russian embassy in Tokyo.

The demonstrators wanted to hold a funeral panikhida for the martyred politician, but the Russian priest in the capital refused. Nika herself, although not a believer, therefore led the group of Russians to the Japanese autonomous Orthodox church, where the priest only asked them not to bring journalists and not to take photos in the church.

Between the anti-war Russians and the traumatised Ukrainians, the Japanese are trying to create a climate of serenity and mutual respect, conditions that are very difficult to achieve not only in the war-torn lands, but in many countries around the world.