YouTube star Logan Paul has confirmed that he hasn’t been “shadow banned” from entering Japan following his viral scandal in the country’s Aokigahara Forest in 2017.
Logan Paul is a top-tier internet star, WWE heel, and businessman, finding success both inside and outside the ring thanks to his hugely profitable Prime Hydration beverage line.
However, his career didn’t look this bright and shiny seven years ago. The influencer has crawled his way back up to the top after becoming the target of the world’s ire in 2017.
That year, Paul took a trip to Japan, where he and his buddies decided to film a video in the country’s Aokigahara Forest — also named the ‘suicide forest’ due to the number of self-inflicted deaths that occur there.
In his video, the YouTuber recorded the body of a suicide victim, something that set public opinion against him for some time and continues to haunt him to this very day.
In fact, Logan was sitting down with special guest Dominik Mysterio for an episode of his IMPAULSIVE podcast on August 13, 2024, when the pro wrestler brought up his own recent trip to Japan for WWE’s tour there.
“Can you go?” Mysterio asked.
“Bro, Dom, what do you think [this is]? Yes, I can go to Japan!” an exasperated Paul answered.
“I didn’t know if you were like, you know, shadowbanned or something,” Mysterio continued. “Excommunicado.”
“No, I’m not excommunicado,” Paul said.
(Topic begins at 55:23)
In fact, Paul’s co-host Mike Majlak claimed that the YouTuber has been too busy to re-visit Japan, while Logan himself said he had “prior obligations” and couldn’t make it to the WWE tour.
“We’ve been hoping to go there,” Majlak said. “He has been really busy. He just hasn’t had time to go over there.”
Paul has been open about his feelings regarding his big mistake in the Land of the Rising Sun. In fact, he claimed the incident was the “best thing that ever happened” to him in a 2022 podcast episode, saying he “needed life to check me, and it did.”
For now, it doesn’t look like Logan is making any immediate plans to return to Japan, but he continues to wreak havoc in the WWE as a popular heel.