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NEW YORK -- A former Major League Baseball employee accused the sport's business arm of fostering an environment in which anti-Asian hostility thrived.

Juri Morioka said in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan that the hostilities were evident while she worked for one year as an administrative assistant in baseball's Broadcasting Department.

Morioka, a Japanese citizen, said she was told when she was hired in February 2002 that her Japanese language skills and familiarity with the Japanese culture would help baseball's International Department deal with Japanese clients.

Yet, she said, she was repeatedly subjected until her May termination to an "unreasonable, offensive and demeaning anti-Japanese and anti-Asian hostility that pervaded the entire International Department."

She said one executive repeatedly referred to people of Japanese ancestry with the term "Jap" or "Japs" and frequently said Japanese clients were "stupid" or "a moron." She said another once said, "I hate Japanese more than Koreans."

After she said the ethnic slurs made it difficult for her to work, an executive she had complained about retaliated against her and she was fired, the lawsuit alleged.

The lawsuit seeks $3.4 million in compensatory and punitive damages, back pay and lost future income.

A telephone message left with a spokesman for Major League Baseball was not immediately returned.

Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press