An investigation was launched Wednesday into an "onsen" hotel in a famous hot spring resort area in Kumamoto Prefecture that refused to accept former Hansen's disease patients as guests earlier this month.

Later in the day, Atsuko Maeda, general manager of the Ai Ladies Kyuden Kurokawa Onsen Hotel, said the hotel would change its policy, adding that she plans to apologize to the former patients.

Meanwhile, Yasushi Shimura, a 70-year-old former Hansen's disease patient and one of the plaintiffs who have sued the government over its past policy of forced segregation, said, "The refusal by the hotel is clearly against the Constitution and can never be acceptable in terms of human rights."