Originally Posted by
mcgahat
You definitely got that!
Really sorry for all the trouble and I don't really see how you could have done much better than you did. The Japanese entry program was stupid from the start and unfortunately you got the short end of it.
Originally Posted by
findark
Given that you had a document that looked like a visa, and so far it sounds like no one in this thread has determined conclusively what the problem was, I'm not surprised that UA let you board.
UA does attempt to check the validity of visas and documents, but it is an obligation to themselves because they face the burden of removing you from Japan and can also be fined by the Japanese government for delivering inadmissible pax. I would absolutely say you had an extremely rare experience - 99% of the time someone without the correct documents for entry will be caught by UA and denied boarding at their origin. In a sense, you could say that UA messed up too, but they don't have a contractual obligation to you here - UA messed up, and they paid for their mistake by having to take you back from Japan, and they may get in trouble with Japan.
Japan is the only willfully bad actor here.
On the heels of Japan's Covid policy widely understood by political observers to have ulterior motives finally coming to an end, they should do what immigration control authorities in countries around the world frequently do, exercise discretion, common sense, and dare I say it, as this is Japan, some human compassion.
Instead, they appeared to gleefully use the letter of the law as cover to deal with a foreigner in the most heavy handed way possible. Had imprisoning her been an option not risking what I understand to be their already shaky ground within the visa exemption agreement with the US, I think they might've done that.