The Gideon Bible it isn’t. At a chain of mid-tier hotels in Japan—roughly equivalent to the Holiday Inn—guests are treated to another form of bedtime reading. Each room includes a book, penned by the chain’s founder and CEO, that claims, among other things, that the Nanjing Massacre was “fabricated by the Chinese side,” and that there were no Korean and Chinese “comfort women.” These, of course, are grotesque lies: Painstaking historical research has demonstrated conclusively that the Japanese imperial army murdered hundreds of thousands in Nanjing (indeed, a spectacularly grim memorial in that city boasts a wall of skulls of the victims), and took hundreds of thousands of sex slaves, most of whom were Korean.
Two New York University students vacationing in Japan discovered the books this month (which are available in Japanese and English, but not Korean or Chinese) and posted a video of them online. Outrage ensued: Chinese social media lit up with angry users announcing they’ll boycott the chain. And that threat could pack a punch: Chinese tourists have become an increasingly important economic engine for the Japanese economy.
The company isn’t backing down, though. Indeed, Toshio Motoya, who, along with his wife, is a major celebrity in Japan, is in fact celebrating his newfound infamy. “We are world famous now . . .Lots of my friends have told me that I’ve become a big deal in news all across the United States, the Philippines, Hawaii and New York,” he said Monday, “I will not withdraw the book despite the criticism.”
In other words, Japan has a flamboyant hotelier with a penchant for making offensive remarks and boasting a distinctly nationalistic outlook. No word on whether Motoya intends to run for office—or join Twitter.
