S.Korea demands Japan to change hotel for athletes from history-distorting APA Hotel

SEOUL -- South Korea's top sports body demanded Japan to change a hotel for its athletes taking part in the 2017 Asian Winter Games from the right-wing Japanese hotel chain, which recently raised controversy over history-distorting books placed in its guestrooms.

An official at the Korean Sport and Olympic Committee (KSOC) told Xinhua Wednesday that the committee sent a letter Tuesday to Japan's organizing committee of the Sapporo winter sports event to ask for a switch in lodgings for South Korean athletes.

The official said the committee was still waiting for the response, adding the result will be announced later in the day when it receives.

APA Group, the Japanese operator of 400-plus hotels, has been under fire from both South Korea and China as it forcibly distributed books that deny the 1937 Nanjing massacre and the forcible recruitment of Korean women as sex slaves before and during World War II.

The books, authored by Seiji Fuji, the pen name of APA Group President Toshio Motoya, were placed in all hotel rooms of APA Group.

Last Wednesday, the South Korean sports body got the response from the Japanese committee, which said it will remove the history-distorting books from guestrooms of APA hotels accommodating South Korean athletes.

The Asian winter sports event is scheduled to be held in Japan from Feb. 19 to 26. Some 2,000 athletes, including those from China and South Korea, will be accommodated by APA hotels in Sapporo.