Japan bans journalist from traveling to Syria, Iraq

Tokyo has banned a Japanese journalist from travelling to Syria and Iraq allegedly over safety concerns.

According to reports on Friday, the Japanese government issued a passport for Yuichi Sugimoto, an experienced war photographer, which bars him from going to the two violence-torn countries.

“This passport is valid for all countries and areas except Iraq and Syria,” read the document.

In February, the Japanese government confiscated Sugimoto’s previous passport after the journalist refused to reconsider his scheduled trip to Syria.

The decision angered Sugimoto who has been reporting from conflict zones across the globe for around 20 years.

“Considering what I have done in the past 20 years, I absolutely cannot accept that I won’t be allowed to travel to Syria and Iraq and report from there,” the 58-year-old journalist said, adding, “I want to continue to demand a normal passport that every ordinary citizen receives.”

Sugimoto said he had planned to travel to the Syrian city of Kobani, which was liberated by the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters on January 26.

Under the Japanese law, the government can confiscate a citizen’s passport only if it makes sure that the holder’s life would come under threat in foreign countries.

The ISIL Takfiri terrorists decapitated two Japanese nationals in Syria in January.

On January 31, the ISIL released a video showing the decapitation of Japanese freelance journalist Kenji Goto.

The 47-year-old journalist and filmmaker went to Syria in October 2014 reportedly to try to secure the release of another ISIL hostage, Haruna Yukawa. Yukawa was apparently beheaded earlier in the month after Tokoy declined to pay a USD 200-million ransom to the terrorist group.

The ISIL terrorist group, with members from several Western countries, controls parts of Iraq and Syria, and has been involved in a series of heinous crimes against civilians and government forces in the two Arab countries.

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