Malaysia arrests 3 Japanese cosplayers in festival raid

Yikes. Were they partying or performing?

If you wanna play, you gotta pay!

Sounds like they were famous cosplayers and on the line up as featured members at the event rather than regular Joe's

Tourism promotion Malaysia, you’re doing it wrong.

Note to self: Don't go to Malaysia, they're nuts.

Malaysia should welcome foreign tourists like Japan, instead of arrest them. No one will visit Malaysia from Japan now.

Note to self: Don't go to Malaysia, they're nuts

Malaysia is a perfectly fine place to visit, just keep your costumes and performance antics at home.

So if for whatever reason I wanted to walk around Kuala Lumpur dressed as Mario, I risk getting arrested and deported?

Malaysia is a perfectly fine place to visit, just keep your costumes and performance antics at home.

So as long as you don't want to enjoy yourself, Malaysia is a great tourist destination. Gotcha.

They were cosplayers attending a comic book convention. Repeat it with me. They were arrested for wearing a costume to a comic book convention. That sounds ok to you?

They weren't arrested for attending a cosplay convention, they were arrested for performing. No country allows that on tourist Visa.

A couple years ago a Japanese band was denied entry to the US because they were going to perform there without the proper paperwork (they tried to go in with a tourist Visa).

Ganbare Japan!Today 07:40 am JST

Malaysia should welcome foreign tourists like Japan, instead of arrest them. No one will visit Malaysia from Japan now.

The article clearly states these people were working on tourists visas. The headline is misleading. Can foreigners work on tourist visas in Japan or Australia, for example? In Japan it's against the law.

As an Australian, could you explain the laws about foreigners working on tourist visas?

If they were paid to perform then a permit could have been required. Perhaps others that paid for their permit put in the complaint.

My mind is imaging comical scenes of the arrests and detention, a la a Coen Brothers movie.

I would steer clear of any place called "Shah Alam."

They were cosplayers attending a comic book convention. Repeat it with me. They were arrested for wearing a costume to a comic book convention.

They were arrested for performing, not for merely attending

They knew the rules, sorry no sympathy from me.

If any tourist in Japan perform the similar activity, our Japanese immigration will do the same.

You need correct/proper work permits to participate any event/job, this is rules every where.

You must not perform other activity when you enter as tourist.

Rules enforcement regardless of nationality.

Nothing wrong here.

Some Internet news sources were saying that they were payed by a Japanese sourcing agency to appear at the convention. Although not for any particular arranged performance, just to show up. It is definitely a gray zone, and Malaysian authorities have been using any excuse to aggressively crack down on what they consider to be “deviant” art and expression.

If they are there performing and being paid then they are working in Malaysia and require a work visa, not a tourist visa

I wonder what the mug shots looked like!

It all hinges on two questions 1) Did they take salary money in Malaysia, or no money or just money to cover expenses? 2) Is the only real reason the authorities paid attention to this was to crack down on un-Muslim activities? I cannot judge without clear answers to those, but if the answer to 2 is yes, then forget about question 1. If 2 is yes then the Malaysian authorities are garbage.

Tread carefully in a Muslim country!

If only the Malaysian police were as efficient when it comes to arresting the numerous, car thieves, snatch thieves, drug dealers and secret society members in their country.....instead of arresting innocent cosplayers.

Article mentions performing, not work activity. Is that correct ?

If so, then it is just as said by many before me, a raid to limit non-muslim arts.

Law is law indeed, but no good then for tourism.

On the other hand, if they have been paid with contract, then it is illegal entry.

I really doubt they were paid since they are so many cosplay geeks to do it for free...

Imagine spiderman, doraemon, naruto and sailormoon arrested altogether lol.

Wow. Major crime Malaysia, well done...(yes I’m being facetious).

Malaysia should welcome foreign tourists like Japan, instead of arrest them. No one will visit Malaysia from Japan now.

Malaysia does welcome foriegn tourists. If somebody wants to perform, follow the law and apply for a permit.

This is stupid. Cosplay is just entertainment and this convention was allowed beforehand. WTH are these players/performers are doing that is really so wrong? Don't these idiot Malaysian police have some real criminals to chase? Stupid!

 arrested in a raid on a Malaysian cosplay festival for ((participating without the proper permits))

if you guys can read this part then i would say lot of you are blind lol

so they arrested Hatsune Miku, Steins Gate and Yoka.........

Seems like a bit of a dumb move on the part of Malaysian law enforcement/.

Crime of the century!!!

Malaysia is a fine place to visit. These morons didn't bother to research their laws, and now they're paying for their ignorance. Note to Japanese tourists: the world outside Japan isn't all Disney

Sometimes there is a very fine line between “cosplayer” and “porn star”.

Especially in conservative Malaysia!

Japanese overseas are not exceptions to the laws of the jurisdiction which they are visiting.

Nowhere in the article does it say they were working. It said they were "performing". While one might perform as a job, it is not a given.

As a comparison, there are professional singers who are paid for singing, and there are people who sing in karaoke for fun. If the cosplayers who were arrested were simply performing at a party/event for the fun of it, with no monetary compensation, then arresting them would be like arresting tourists in Japan for singing karaoke at a party/event for fun.

As a Malaysian I could tell you,never doing events at any Islamic country