News Controversial history textbooks finally pass screening

[thomas]

Japanese publisher Reiwa Shoseki's history textbooks for junior high school students have finally been approved by the education ministry. Despite failing four times previously, the two textbooks will now be used from the 2025 school year onward. Over 100 corrections were made, including rectifying the erroneous description of Japan as "the oldest existing nation in the world." Previously, these textbooks were sold online as "rejected by the education ministry's screening."

History textbooks for junior high schools with a highly conservative flavor include the Jiyuusha editions written by members of the "Atarashii Rekishi Kyokasho o Tsukuru Kai" (the association for creating new history textbooks) and the Ikuhosha editions, but the education ministry says that the two publishers' combined share in the 2024 school year stands at only about 1%.

However, the publisher's textbooks' string of screening failures began with the academic 2018 edition, and in the 2020 edition more than 600 flaws were pointed out. The education ministry apparently pointed out inappropriate terms in the edition for the 2021 school year including "Shina," a derogatory name for China, and "Wuhan pneumonia" for COVID-19.

Japan's nationalists have their own version of creationism:

While many history textbooks begin with an explanation of the birth of humankind and the Paleolithic period, the Reiwa Shoseki edition started with the Japanese myth in the "Kojiki," or "records of ancient matters," declaring that the gods created the Japanese archipelago. The edition included a column featuring the prewar "Imperial Rescript on Education" as a means to ensure that "respecting the value of the individual," mentioned in the Basic Act on Education, "can be understood in a more correct form, rather than just as the enjoyment of rights." It also contained a description of the South Korean response to the wartime comfort women issue as a "rehash."

Controversial history textbooks finally pass Japan education ministry screening - The Mainichi

TOKYO -- A Japanese publisher's controversial history textbooks for junior high school students have finally passed the education ministry's screening

mainichi.jp