A growing number of Ukrainian medical students and doctors who came to Japan to escape the war of aggression by Russia and studied at Juntendo University in Tokyo have returned to their conflict-ravaged home country.
In response to Russia's prolonged invasion of Ukraine, the university set up a system to continue providing support in line with the requests of the Ukrainians. More than half of the 18 trainees and researchers accepted by the university had left Japan by this spring, with some saying they wanted to use the knowledge they had learned in Japan in their homeland as soon as possible.
Oleksandra Riabets, a 23-year-old student at Bogomolets National Medical University in Kyiv, was among those who chose to return to Ukraine. Riabets arrived in Japan in May last year and studied at Juntendo University, receiving training at medical planning conferences and in surgery rooms. During that time, she said, she regularly heard about the harsh conditions in Ukraine from friends involved in medicine at home.