The Foreign Ministry ordered freelance journalist Kosuke Tsuneoka to surrender his passport after he tried to leave Japan on Feb. 2 for Yemen, which is in the midst of a civil war. The ostensible reason for the order is that Tsuneoka in January attempted to travel to Yemen through Oman, which refused him entry, and the law states that the Japanese government can seize the passport of any citizen who is said to be inadmissible by a foreign country.
Tsuneoka has said publicly that he believes the Oman incident is a convenient excuse for the government to prevent him from carrying out journalistic activities. Because of the war, Japan has listed Yemen as an unsafe country. Tsuneoka had asked to interview staff at Doctors Without Borders and the United Nations World Food Program about the relief organizations’ activities, since few mainstream Japanese news outlets have done so. He obtained a visa from Yemen for those purposes.
The Foreign Ministry has not commented on Tsuneoka's allegations, although it is no secret that it doesn't want reporters going to war zones. In 2015, it confiscated the passport of a photojournalist who had planned to cover Syria.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.