The city of Nanjing has canceled a commemorative China-Japan judo event scheduled for this week in the wake of Nagoya Mayor Takashi Kawamura's controversial remarks about the 1937 massacre there carried out by the Imperial Japanese Army, sources said.
The event, scheduled for Friday, was to feature a ceremony marking the second anniversary of the construction of the China-Japan Friendship Judo Stadium in Nanjing.
1984 Olympic gold medalist Yasuhiro Yamashita was scheduled to give a judo clinic during the event.
A three-day "Japan Week in Nanjing" cultural event featuring the Nagoya-based pop group SKE48 is scheduled to open in Nanjing on March 9.
It was not immediately known whether this event will be held as planned.
Kawamura said Feb. 20 that he believes only "conventional acts of combat," not mass murder and rape of civilians, occurred in Nanjing in 1937 during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
Nanjing said the next day it would suspend exchanges with Nagoya in retaliation, according to China News Service.
The two cities established sister-city relations in 1978.
Chinese historians say more than 300,000 people were killed during the 1937 rampage, while Japanese academics cite estimates that put the death toll ranging from 20,000 to 200,000.
Kawamura defended his remarks again Monday, saying, "I believe it is not factual that as many as 300,000 unarmed civilians were massacred."