My unforgettable tour in Ukraine Summer 2025

Hi, everyone! This is Shamisen Singer YUZU.

I’ve just returned home from an unforgettable trip and wanted to share an update — I visited Ukraine this summer.

I was invited as a guest of Anime & Kpop Fest 2025, a youth pop culture festival that traveled through 21 cities across the country. I performed at 12 of the stops.

Official instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hebihebi_agency/

I knew from the beginning that traveling to Ukraine wasn’t a simple decision. After receiving the offer, I spent six months thinking it through, gathering information, and checking safety. 

What ultimately convinced me was the sincerity of the organizers—and the belief that chances to truly help people through music don’t come often in a lifetime.

Before this, I honestly knew very little about Ukraine. I hadn’t realized that behind the war coverage on the news, there were people who listened to my music, or what their everyday lives felt like.

Being there in person, I came to see how much we in peaceful countries fail to grasp the cruelty of a modern war. On the surface, many Ukrainian cities look no different from those in Japan or Europe: food is delicious, streets are clean, and I never felt unsafe. Yet this sense of normalcy exists only because so many families and friends have already lost loved ones on the battlefield.

Ukrainian young people are just like teenagers anywhere else. They’re on Instagram and TikTok, they watch Netflix dramas, they discover music on Spotify, and they stress about school, careers, and relationships. 

They know about the paths and opportunities their peers abroad can take. 

They share the same knowledge and values—but unlike others, their dreams are limited. They live every day with the quiet understanding that “a missile could strike tomorrow” or “I might be sent to the front in a few years.”

At first, because Ukraine is currently a region where travel is discouraged, I hadn’t planned on sharing this story publicly. But after being there, I realized it’s something I want people to know.

As one individual, I can’t do much. What I can do is share what I saw and heard — and remind young people in Ukraine that they are not forgotten, that the world is with them.

These three weeks were, without exaggeration, the most intense of my life. I felt like I got to relive my own teenage years—maybe even brighter ones—together with the kids there. It felt like the culmination of everything I’ve poured into my music so far.

That said, this is not the end of my journey. My activities will continue, and my next tour will be this October–November across several countries in Western Europe and Africa.

I’ll keep bringing Japanese music and pop culture to the world—and at the same time, I’ll keep sharing my experience in Ukraine. Above all, I want to keep sending love and encouragement to all my friends there.