Ike Turner, billed as the top performer in a Japanese blues festival held last week, was refused entry to Japan by immigration officials because of a past drug conviction.
The 71-year-old singer-songwriter was jailed in the United States in 1990 for cocaine possession. He was turned back Wednesday after being questioned for five hours, Kansai International Airport immigration official Minoru Kamiyo said Friday.
Turner had been scheduled to headline the 2003 Japan Blues Carnival, a four-day tour through western Japan and the capital, Tokyo.