Japan: Tokyo District Approves Controversial History Textbook
Posted on: Friday, 12 August 2005, 06:00 CDT
Text of report in English by Japanese news agency Kyodo
Tokyo, 12 August: The education board of Tokyo's Suginami Ward adopted on Friday [12 August] a controversial textbook on Japanese history for use at its 23 junior high schools from the next academic year beginning in April 2006, board officials said.
The decision was made amid strong protest from groups of local residents, who claim the textbook justifies Japan's past military aggressions.
The schools will use the textbook for four years from next April in line with the board decision.
Three out of five members of the board voted in favour of the textbook, edited by members of the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform, for use at the ward-run schools with a total of about 6,400 students.
Those who voted in favour said children are unable to have hope in the future of their own country by only reading about negative images of Japan's past, while opponents said they fear the textbook encourages warfare as it says Japanese soldiers fought "bravely" in World War II.
The decision by the Suginami Ward education board follows a 13 July decision by the education board in Otawara in Tochigi Prefecture to use the textbook published by Fusosha Publishing Inc. at 12 junior high schools in the city, and the 28 July decision by the Tokyo metropolitan board of education to use it at its four junior high schools offering six-year programmes and 19 schools for disabled children.
The textbook is also used in seven schools in Ehime Prefecture, including six-year secondary schools and schools for disabled children.
There are 583 academic districts nationwide, of which education boards are empowered to decide on the textbooks to be used in their districts. By the end of August, all of the districts are to decide on which textbooks will be used for their schools from April 2006.
The textbook reform society said it hopes the textbook will be adopted for use by 10 per cent of the districts.
The central government's approval of the textbook has stirred anti-Japanese sentiment in other Asian countries, including China and South Korea, which insist the textbooks gloss over Japan's wartime atrocities.
Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific
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