Revisionism in Textbook

Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, or MEXT, released the result of screening on textbooks for social studies in mid-schools on Monday. That was the first attempt of the government further involved in editing of the publishers after introducing new standard for screening last year. As the result, textbooks look like biased by official views of national government, which is growingly leaning on the right.

MEXT introduced new standard last year that requires the publishers to describe historical events following governmental official views and to make clear that there had been no common notion on details of some events. If a textbook does not pass the screening, schools cannot use it in the classroom.

Among all twenty textbooks, five textbooks received six opinions from MEXT. Four opinions were about missing official views of the government, while two were suggested to be in short of explanation on the lack of common notion. In the description of existence of people who require compensation for damages in wartime, MEXT gave opinion to add the fact that compensation had been solved in governmental level. On the number of Korean victims in the time of Great Kanto Earthquake, MEXT demanded the publisher to add description of no common notion on the number.

Receiving governmental intervention, all social studies textbooks consumed more space for territorial issue. They expanded the pages for Northern Territory, Takeshima and Senkaku Islands. To pass the screening, the publishers had to increase volume on the issue. On Takeshima, MEXT required to add the fact of consecutive opposition of Japanese government to South Korean government, in addition to difference between two nations. There was no textbook that introduced detailed opinion in neighbor countries.

On comfort woman, which is a personal political agenda of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, one textbook originally tried to introduce testimony of a former Korean woman about request of compensation. MEXT changed the description by adding official statement of Japan that it did not find direct evidence of coercive transporting and deleted drawings of recruit.

New method of screening has no reflection of failure of pre-war era when knowledge forced by the government brought lack of diversity among the people, which caused deep belief in Japan’s superiority to the Western nations. This attitude may ignite fundamental discrimination against neighbor nations, which can lead to another instability in East Asia.