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Lotte Hotel cancels reservation for Japanese self-defense forces event

July 10, 2014

SEOUL (Yonhap) — South Korea’s high-end hotel chain Lotte Hotel canceled its plan to host a Japanese annual event marking the establishment of the Japanese self-defense forces on Thursday, citing unfavorable public sentiment here.

The Embassy of Japan in Korea had planned to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the modern Japanese military at Lotte Hotel in central Seoul on Friday.

“In consideration of the public sentiment, (we) canceled the Japanese embassy’s special event scheduled for Friday,” the hotel said. “We created public concerns by processing the reservation without correct prior information about the event.”

The hotel said it notified the embassy of the cancellation. It is unclear whether the embassy is planning to hold the event elsewhere.

The Japanese embassy in Seoul has marked the establishment of its defense forces annually with various events here. The embassy had planned a larger-than-usual public event this year to mark the 60th anniversary.

Lotte Hotel’s decision comes amid heightened Seoul-Tokyo relations, which Seoul blames on Japan’s stance on history and move to expand the role of its military.