TOKYO, Feb. 15 -- South African Ambassador to Japan has lodged a protest against Japan's right-leaning Sankei Shimbun over a column by its prominent author Ayako Sono praising apartheid policy, local media reported Sunday.

The Sankei Shimbun released a story in its Wednesday edition, in which Sono said it is better for people of different races to live separately as they did under South Africa's former policy of racial segregation.

In regard to the report, S. African Ambassador to Japan Mohau Pheko sent a letter to Sankei Shimbun, Japan's Kyodo News Agency reported.

Pheko said in the letter: "Apartheid policy is a crime against humanity that cannot be justified in the 21st century. It is shameful to try to beautify this kind of move."

A nonprofit organization Africa Japan Forum also protested Sono and the Sankei Shimbun over the story, demanding the latter to withdraw the column and apologize for South African people.

On "Labor shortage and immigrants," 83-year-old Sono pointed out the need for the nation to allow foreigners to work in the health-care industry to address manpower shortages. But she said, "When it comes to living, Caucasians, Asians and blacks should live separately."

Since Abe took power again in late 2012, the right-leaning Sankei Shimbun has worked as a vanguard to whitewash Japan's wartime history and its aggression atrocities for the government. Sono, known for her conservative remarks, has served Abe as a member of a government panel on education.