The president of Hankyu Hanshin Hotels Co. said Monday he will step down on Friday to take the blame for a lengthy food advertising scandal involving menus at its inns and restaurants.
"We betrayed our customers, and we can't deny the allegation that we falsified our menus," President Hiroshi Desaki said at a news conference.
The announcement came a week after the Osaka-based hotelier admitted serving food made with ingredients cheaper than described on its menus at eight hotels in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Hyogo prefectures between March 2006 and September 2013.
The company had earlier claimed that the problem with not a case of deception, but mislabeling.