A few Taiwanese have been denied visa-free entry to Japan in recent months because they were unable to explain their frequent visits to the country, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Thursday.
After they were denied entry, those citizens sought help from Taiwan’s representative office in Japan, Bureau of Consular Affairs Deputy Director-General Roger Luo (羅添宏) said.
Japanese authorities thought that the Taiwanese nationals had been traveling too frequently to Japan — each averaging about two or three visits per month — and were unable to clearly explain their travel plans, which violates the visa-waiver regulations, he said.
Luo said the number of Taiwanese travelers who have been refused visa-free entry to Japan might actually be highter than reported.
He said that in the past, Taiwanese citizens have been denied visa-free entry to a country for various reasons, including making frequent visits, carrying too much of certain products and carrying too much or too little cash.
For example, a Taiwanese traveler was recently denied entry to New Zealand because the person was carrying 400 cosmetic facial masks, Luo said.
Other Taiwanese have also been barred from entering a country visa-free because they were found to be engaged in illegal or commercial activities, were carrying damaged passports or lacked the appropriate travel documents, Luo said.
The ministry warned that the visa-waiver program is for tourism purposes and that immigration officials have the right to ask about visitors’ travel plans and deny entry if the travelers are found to be violating immigration rules.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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