Japan Press Weekly

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2007 July 25 - 31 [EDUCATION]

Tokyo adopts infamous rightist history and civics textbooks

The Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education on July 26 adopted the controversial history textbook glorifying Japan’s past war of aggression, edited by the “Japanese Society for Textbook Reform” and published by Fushosha Publishers, to be used in two metropolitan junior high schools that will open next April.

All six members of the board of education also approved the Textbook Reform Society’s civics textbook praising the Meiji Constitution (the Constitution of the Empire of Japan), which was replaced with the current Constitution after Japan’s defeat in WWII, for three metropolitan junior high schools.

The Tokyo Residents’ Network, a civic group in opposition to adoption of the Textbook Reform Society’s textbooks, on the same day issued a statement criticizing the Board of Education for its failure to explain why they think those textbooks are appropriate and demanding the retraction of the decisions.

Children and Textbooks Japan Network 21 also issued a statement criticizing the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education for having made “outrageous decisions motivated by political bias.” Pointing out that the publisher, Fusosha, itself admitted that its textbooks have received poor ratings from Boards of Education across the nation because they are “too rightist,” this group condemns the Tokyo Board of Education’s decisions for being “extremely irresponsible.”
- Akahata, July 27, 2007