Japan’s right-wing APA Hotel has no leeway in China

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China’s online travel service providers Qunar and Meituan have removed more APA hotels which were recently spotted accessible again, ten months after they are boycotted in China for its denial of Japanese war crimes during World War II.

Earlier this year, Japan’s APA Hotel chain operator, APA Group, is revealed to have placed copies of a right-wing book in its hotel rooms across Japan, as well as selling them in the hotels' lobbies.

CGTN Photo

The book denies the 1937 Nanjing Massacre by Japanese troops, which resulted in some 300,000 deaths in east China’s city of Nanjing, as well as forced recruitment of “comfort women.”

Despite widespread outrage from China and South Korea, APA Group founder Toshio Motoya said they had no intention to withdraw the book, and even claimed that people would forget the incident in a few months.

China’s tourism authorities have since called upon all outbound tourism business and e-commerce platforms to terminate cooperation with the hotel and remove all related products and advertisements.

Photo from huanqiu.com

However, according to reports, APA hotels could be searched and were available again on China’s Qunar and Meituan on November 12, which has immediately ignited an online outcry in China.

Screenshot of comments on Weibo

On one of China’s largest social media platforms Weibo, user @doumouren said, “the booking sites are too shameless!”

User @Zangfengxuan said, “how long does it take for people to forget an incident? Hope we can remember what should be remembered. All Chinese should read the article.”

And user @zhuziwangyue commented, “forgetting history means betrayal.”

No result of APA hotel can be found on Qunar on November 13, 2017. Photo from huanqiu.com

In response, the two Chinese websites have removed relevant hotel information for the first time.

Qunar response to the incident. /Photo from huanqiu.com

Qunar said the hotels failed to be blocked due to lack of registered brand information, while Meituan has promised to step up monitor mechanism in future to make its block list accurate and complete.