By: Dean Miller, Nick Muller
Does a social media post's photo prove citizens of Turkey, Syria, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, India and Pakistan are banned from nightclubs in Japan? No, that's not true: The photo of a chart of passport covers doesn't even match the countries listed in the post. Further, no credible news organization or embassy has reported such a ban being imposed at clubs across Japan. The post listing those countries provides no documentary evidence, only a picture taken from some other social media user's anecdote about one club.
The claim appeared in an August 25, 2025 X post (archived here) on the @radioeuropes account under the caption: "BREAKING NEWS". It opened:
Citizens of Turkey, Syria, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, India and Pakistan are banned from entering nightclubs in Japan.
Here's what the post looked like at the time this fact check was written:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of post at x.com/RadioEuropes.)
Lead Stories used keywords and the list of countries to search Google News' index of thousands of news websites (archived here) and did not find any reports that nightclubs in Japan ban citizens of those six countries. Lead Stories used the same search terms to search across the Yahoo! News index of its partner news sites and news services (archived here) showed no reports that corroborate the claims made in the X post.
Lead Stories found an August 17, 2025 Instagram video (archived here) of a man in a car speaking in Turkish about his travels to Japan. Included in his video is someone else's Turkish language social media video of what appears to be the entry line at a club. That's the screenshot - of a woman holding a laminated chart of six passport covers - used in the RadioEuropes X post.
In the video-within-a-video, the woman whose voice is heard speaking Turkish holds a laminated sheet of paper showing two columns of passport covers, saying she was told those countries' citizens are banned from a club she tried to enter. Lead Stories Japanese-speaking staff said no Japanese is spoken. Reference is made in written description of the post, to T2-Shinjuku, a Tokyo club, and a person in line wears a shirt on which the Japanese character for Tokyo is printed, but there's no clear evidence the video was taken in Japan.
Lead Stories Turkish speaking staff translated the woman's statement as follows:
The passports that can be seen here are not being let in. Are you seeing these friends? Look at the passports here. Are you seeing these?
The other problem with the claim that clubs in Japan ban the citizens of those six countries is that it does not match the screenshot of the purported list. The topmost passport cover in the right column is for Mongolia, which isn't among the countries listed in the X post:
(Image source: Lead Stories graphic consisting of screenshot of post at x.com/RadioEuropes and screenshot from passport collection at passportindex.org.)
Afghanistan's passport is not seen on the chart, another disconnect between what is claimed and the photo offered as proof:
(Image source: Lead Stories graphic consisting of screenshots of post at x.com/RadioEuropes, passport collection at passportindex.org and post at www.instagram.com/ciihankoc)
Since the Turkish-speaking woman's video description mentions it, Lead Stories reached out to T2-Shinjuku dance club. It's in Shinjuku, the Tokyo district home to major government offices as well as shopping and entertainment. We inquired if the club bans all citizens of those countries on the laminated sheet from entering. We will update this fact check when they reply.
Lead Stories also reached out to the Japanese government's U.S. embassy to learn if there are national or regional bans on citizens of those countries entering nightclubs.
Lead Stories staff reviewed the websites of the Turkish embassy in Japan (archived here) and found no warnings to travelling Turks that they'd be turned away by clubs. As of August 26, 2025, Japan required no visa for short-stay travellers who hold machine-readable passports.
The Instagram creator above, @ciihankoc, tagged the Japan embassy in Ankara, in his post. As of August 26, 2025, there was no notice posted by that embassy that it's checking on this allegation or any warnings about this prohibition sign shown in the posts. Lead Stories also checked the Consulate-General of Japan in Istanbul, finding no statement that it's checking on this allegation or any warnings about this prohibition sign.
