Noted novelist Yasutaka Tsutsui has sparked the ire of South Koreans after making what was widely blasted as an obscene insult against a "comfort women" statue.
Tsutsui, best known for his 1966 science fiction novel "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time," has come under fire for blogging what appeared to be words of protest against Tokyo's decision last week to send the ambassador to South Korea, Yasumasa Nagamine, back to Seoul.
Nagamine's return put an end to a three-month-long absence that was triggered by a South Korean citizen group's provocative move in December to erect the statue — which symbolizes women forced to provide sex in Japanese military brothels before and during the war — in front of the Japanese Consulate in Busan.