After Intervention, Son Of WWII Japanese Envoy Who Rescued Jews Gets Israel Visa

By Times of Israel
Posted on 10/10/21 | News Source: Times of Israel

After initially denying the son of Chiune Sugihara and his family an entry visa over missing COVID-19 documents, Israel reversed course on Friday morning, allowing them to attend a ceremony on October 11 naming a Jerusalem square after the Japanese diplomat who saved thousands of Jews from the Nazis.

Nobuki Sugihara, Chiune’s 72-year-old son living in Belgium, had applied for an entrance visa on September 28 through Israel’s embassy in Brussels.

“Examination of your application shows that it does not meet the criteria that allows a permit to arrive in Israel during this period of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the response read.

It took the intervention of sympathetic Israeli officials on Thursday — including director of the Foreign Ministry’s Consular Division Liaison Department Ziv Bilaus, spokesman of Israel’s Embassy in Japan Ronen Medzini, Jewish Agency International Relations head Yigal Palmor, and Yad Vashem CEO Dani Dayan – to overcome the bureaucratic obstacles.