Conforming to the Chinese government’s advisory over boycotting APA Hotel, Japanese organizers of the Asian Winter Games are currently moving Chinese athletes to other accommodations within Sapporo. (Photo : Getty Images)
China's athletic contingent for the 8th Asian Winter Games due in Sapporo, Japan are set to find alternative accommodations in place of their bookings with APA Hotel. The popular Tokyo-based hotel chain found itself in hot water by keeping books that deny the veracity of the Nanjing Massacre.
Conforming to the Chinese government's advisory over boycotting APA Hotel, Japanese organizers of the Asian Winter Games are currently moving Chinese athletes to other accommodations within Sapporo.
The APA Hotel chain, alongside Prince Hotels, is identified as among the Asian Winter Games' official accommodation partners.
The book, which was written by no less than APA Hotel's CEO Toshio Motoya under the pseudonym Seiji Fuji, has stirred controversy for its outright denial of the Nanjing Massacre, which happened in 1937 when the Chinese city was under imperial Japanese rule in the leadup to World War II.
The Nanjing Massacre is deemed as one of the most barbaric acts inflicted by imperial Japan upon China, and is among the focal points of discussion on the tense relations both countries share with one another. Such cost the lives of around 300,000 Chinese when the imperial Japanese military invaded Nanjing.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying condemned APA Hotel's move to stock the books in its hotels, saying that the historically revisionist move can only strain relations between China and Japan.
Hua also called out the Japanese government not to be neglectful of their duty in that regard.
Initially, Motoya was defiant about the impending boycott, saying that Chinese guests only make up around 5 percent of the guests that stay in APA Hotel branches.
The boycott has spread among Chinese social media users, even reaching the extent of tour operators being told to cut associations with the hotel chain.
Yet in a later update, Japanese organizers announced that APA Hotel is withdrawing all copies of the books from all its hotels' premises.
The removal of the books will be in effect at least within the duration of the Asian Winter Games.
Watch this YouTube footage of a user finding Motoya's controversial book in a APA Hotel branch below:
