A Japanese kindergarten known for its nationalist curriculum has apologised after coming under fire for hostile comments about Korean and Chinese parents.
The operator of Tsukamoto Kindergarten in the western city of Osaka was questioned by local education authorities last month after complaints from parents in December.
Kyodo news agency reported last week that the school had handed parents copies of a statement which described the parents of Chinese and Korean children as having "evil thoughts."
The private pre-school had also posted a statement on its home page referring to "delinquent" South Korean and Chinese parents.
But it has now deleted that from its website and replaced it with another expressing remorse.
"We apologise for our expression about foreigners that led to misunderstanding," it said.
The kindergarten previously had said the insults were provoked by criticism it had received from Chinese and South Korean parents.
The kindergarten has drawn attention for introducing a curriculum that includes the memorisation of an 1890 imperial edict which was widely used to promote militaristic education during World War II.
A number of incidents of hate speech against specific ethnic groups on the streets or online have been reported in Japan in recent years.
They are most commonly directed at Koreans who came to Japan when the Korean peninsula was under Japanese colonial rule between 1910-1945, and at their descendants who stayed in the country.
China's rising economic and military profile, as well as a simmering territorial dispute with Japan over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, have also raised tensions.
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