Yomiuri Shimbun’s Kurashige Wins Vaughn-Uyeda Prize for Ukraine Coverage

The Yomiuri Shimbun

12:28 JST, March 6, 2025

Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent Yumiko Kurashige, 42, in Rome has been named one of two winners of the 2024 Vaughn-Uyeda Memorial International Journalistic Prize, given to recognize outstanding international reporting, the Japan Press Research Institute announced Wednesday.

Her series of reports from Ukraine’s front line was highly evaluated for “thoroughly covering the intense experiences of war victims and having a strong appeal to readers,” according to the public interest incorporated foundation.

The Yomiuri Shimbun won the award for the second consecutive year following the 2023 award given to Koya Ozeki, chief of the paper’s General Bureau of Europe, for his exclusive interview with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, among other coverage.

Kurashige was awarded for her reporting from February and August 2024, after Russia’s invasion in 2022.

The articles reported in detail the experiences of a woman used the frozen sperm of her husband killed in the war to become pregnant, as well as the voices of women who were sexually assaulted by Russian soldiers deciding to testify about the war crimes. Kurashige reported the reality of the aggression from the perspective of ordinary citizens caught in the crossfire, including the emotional trauma suffered by a women’s unit formed in Bucha, a city near Kyiv where many civilians were massacred, and their feelings that they could only move forward by picking up a gun.

Ryota Dei, 47, a senior staff writer at Jiji Press who has long covered issues surrounding global warming in the Arctic Circle, was selected as the other winner of the prize.