In Japan, a Palestinian-Syrian American comedian named Sammy Obeid came to participate in a Tokyo stand-up comedy show on a tourist visa.
But he told the immigration officers that he had come to Japan just for a day to look around.
However, his X account was promoting a stand-up comedy show in Tokyo. Because of this, he got caught — that he had not come to look around, but to perform the show.
Japanese immigration officers clearly told him that without an entertainer visa, he could not be allowed entry into Japan, and sent him back to America.
After that, he went on social media and claimed that the Japanese government had targeted him because of his Palestinian-Lebanese-Syrian background and his pro-Palestine views.
Whereas the real reason was that he had not been able to obtain the required entertainer visa, yet he still went to Japan.
Is being sent back for violating a country’s visa rules racism, or is enforcing its own laws every country’s right?