Japan Games bosses look to bin hotel war book and porn

Japanese organisers of next month's Asian Winter Games plan to create a "comfortable atmosphere" for visiting athletes by removing inflammatory war literature from hotel rooms -- and unplugging adult movie channels.

One of Japan's largest hotel chains sparked an angry backlash from China this week after placing the book in guest rooms which claimed the infamous 1937 Nanjing Massacre committed by Japanese troops was a "fabrication."

Toshio Motoya, chief executive of the Tokyo-based APA hotel group that will welcome athletes from over 30 countries in Sapporo, wrote the book under a pen name disputing Chinese claims that 300,000 people died in a six-week killing spree by the Japanese military.

Sapporo organisers indicated they may call for the publication's removal, along with material of a racier nature in the form of porn films viewable with pre-paid cards sold in the hotel.

"We will talk with APA hotels and if we feel the athletes don't like it then of course we will remove it," accommodation officer Yasushi Suzuki told AFP on Friday.

"The Games organising committee wants athletes to feel comfortable and have appealed to the hotel to support our position to avoid any fuss."

Adult movies could also be canned, he said, if they were deemed to offend visiting delegations.

"We have to think about whether there could be a problem with movies on religious grounds or what impact they could have culturally," Suzuki added. 

"If we think it would be uncomfortable we will ask for them not to be broadcast."

Halal food will be among other culturally sensitive issues to be discussed before the week-long Asian Winter Games begin on February 19, organisers said.

The APA group insisted earlier this week it would not remove the controversial book, placed in its rooms across Japan, despite a fierce response from social media users and a stinging official rebuke from the Chinese government and state-run media.

The hotel did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Source: AFP