Olympic archery champion causes stir for calling restaurant 'pro-Japan'

An San poses with her gold medal for women's individual archery from the Tokyo Olympics at Yumenoshima Park Archery Field in Tokyo, Japan, July 30, 2021. Yonhap

Korean archer An San, who won three gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics in Japan in 2021, caused a stir with an online post that described a Japanese-themed restaurant as a “traitor to the nation.” The restaurant owner accused the Olympian’s remark of wrongly branding his business as being a pro-Japanese collaborator.

The 23-year-old shared a photo of a signboard saying “international departures” bound to Japan on Instagram Saturday, with a comment that read “How come there are so many traitors to the nation in Korea.”

A screenshot of An San's Instagram story / Captured from internet

The photo is no longer available, as it was an Instagram Story that disappeared 24 hours after upload.

The sign in An’s post was part of the entrance to a Japan-themed restaurant at a shopping mall's food complex in the southwestern city of Gwangju, where a Japanese hot pot pub brand created and operated by Koreans is in business.

An’s post triggered online users to harass the business owner, who ended up uploading a letter of plea to end the controversy.

“Spreading rumors and wild speculation has suddenly turned me into a descendent of pro-Japanese collaborators and my brand is accused of betraying the country,” the brand owner surnamed Kwon said in a social media post Sunday.

Kwon added that he opened the restaurant brand after going through hardships during the COVID-19 pandemic and created a brand themed with a trip to Japan before the reopening of borders.

Kwon said that he and others who run the restaurant brand are bombarded with malicious comments with anti-Japan sentiments from the controversy and asked the public to stop the online harassment.