Japanese Photographer Denied Entry into Hong Kong After Exhibition on 2019 Pro-Democracy Movement

The photographer said on her FaceBook, “Hong Kong has lost its freedom.”

Screenshot of Michiko Kiseki's Facebook post describing her experience of being denied entry into Hong Kong, posted on Jan. 5, 2023. Courtesy of Michiko Kiseki/Facebook

A Japanese photographer was refused entry into Hong Kong after she displayed her photos at an exhibition in Japan documenting the 2019 pro-democracy movement activities in Hong Kong.

According to her Facebook post on Jan. 5, Michiko Kiseki, a Japanese photographer, who had planned to celebrate the New Year in Hong Kong, was refused entry into the city when she arrived at the Hong Kong International Airport on Dec. 30, 2022.

She was repatriated to Japan the next day.

Kiseki was surprised by the incident and said this might be her last time visiting Hong Kong as she felt that “Hong Kong has lost its freedom.”

In her post, she said she cried on the flight back to Japan, for she could never return to her beloved Hong Kong. Kiseki knew the refusal would happen at a particular time, but this was way earlier than she expected, and she did not regret what she had done.

Kiseki lived in Hong Kong with her father when she was a child. She often took photos in Hong Kong after growing up.

She took photos and documented the front line of the Hong Kong demonstrations from 2019 to 2020 and displayed them at an exhibition in February 2021 before publishing the images into a photobook, “VOICE Hong Kong 2019.”

Photobook cover for "VOICE Hong Kong 2019" by Michiko Kiseki, which documented the protests of the Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement in Hong Kong in 2019. Courtesy of Michiko Kiseki

On Jan. 5, 2023, Kiseki posted some photos taken from the air over Hong Kong through social media. “While in detention, I was reminded of what it must have been like for young people in 2019,” said Kiseki, “Hong Kong is crazy now, but I still love Hong Kong.”

When she was detained at the Hong Kong airport, she was questioned by a Hong Kong police officer from National Security Department, referring to her exhibition held in Japan about the protests. She was “just surprised that it was mentioned several times about a photo exhibition in Japan, not a photo collection in another room. She now understands that Japan also has a lot of Chinese secret police. Well, it’s not a surprise,” she said.

The Japanese Economic Newspaper “Nihon Keizai Shimbun,” the world’s largest financial newspaper (by circulation), reported on Jan. 11 that it requested Hong Kong Immigration Department (HKID) to comment on the incident. HKID refused to comment on the particular incident but emphasized that it has worked according to the laws and policies.