Leftist Textbooks

It got back to the left side again. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in Japan (MEXT), so ridiculously long name that indicated poor English education in this country, reported the conclusion of examination for high school textbooks. In dealing with the expression about Okinawa and the comfort women in history books, the ministry allowed more victim-oriented views than current ones, even if it would lead to criticisms against the government. Some say that it was affected by former Democratic administration

The government of Japan requires all public schools to use textbooks authorized by the Council of Textbook Examination in MEXT. The ministry says that textbooks need to be just, objective and moderated for appropriate education. The council, consisted by college professors and teachers of high, mid, and elementary schools, examines some textbooks edited by private publishers every year. If they find an inappropriate expression, they send their opinions to the publisher.

The biggest topic this year was that the council examined history textbooks from a viewpoint of victims of the World War II. In some textbooks, there were expressions that the group suicides in Okinawa at the last moments of the war had been “forced” by military. The council approved that for the first time. In 2006 examination, the same expression had not passed the council. After the publishers corrected the expression, people in Okinawa protested it and MEXT allowed descriptions like “engagements of army” or “Okinawa people were pushed to suicide.”

On the comfort women, one textbook changed the expression from “some were taken away as comfort women” to “some were taken away by military as comfort women.” The council added no opinion to that. Although the government of Japan takes a position that there has not been found any source to indicate that forcibility. According to Sankei Shimbun, MEXT explained that the expression did not clearly indicate forcibility.

Problems over territories were written based on nationalistic notions. Nine out of ten approved textbooks deals with Takeshima and Senkaku, to which arguments with South Korea and China is ongoing. Another topic this year was a lot of textbooks doubted the myth of nuclear power generation and raised discussion over future energy resources.

General assessments for this year’s examination is it got back to the situation before 2006, when the council shifted to the right under Shinzo Abe’s first administration. This time, the council started the examination under liberal DPJ administration last spring. That’s why the specialists see some influence from DPJ. However, the examination is always be affected by politics. This attitude may be changed soon.