Japan Press Weekly

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2015 July 29 - August 4 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Nagoya City decides not to use rightist textbooks in schools

The Nagoya City Board of Education on July 29, in choosing history and civics schoolbooks for use in city-owned junior high schools from next April, decided not to adopt the war-glorifying textbooks published by either Ikuhosha or Jiyusha.

City Mayor Kawamura Takashi is known as a denier of the Nanjing Massacre and the existence of wartime “comfort women”. In contrast, a large number of Nagoya citizens voiced their hope that the city would adopt textbooks true to historical facts.

The secretariat of the board explained that the authority received public comments which amounted to five times more than last time regarding choice of textbooks, saying, “More than 80% of opinions were that the books which glorify wars and justify Japan’s past war of aggression are not appropriate as education materials.”

Most of the board members agreed that history textbooks should be faithful to the facts. Some even criticized Ikuhosha and Jiyusha textbooks as deceiving the general public by describing the Greater East Asia War as a war for Asian liberation and for Japan’s survival and self-defense.

However, a few members insisted that it would be better to not use the term Nanjing Massacre and that a unique feature of Japan is that the Emperor system has lasted for thousands of years.

Nearly twice as many residents as the gallery’s seating capacity held came to observe the textbook selection proceedings. A woman with a 9-year-old girl smiled and said, “I’m glad to know that many citizens are raising voices against Ikuhosha and Jiyusha textbooks.” A social studies teacher said, “I feel so relieved that the board didn’t choose the controversial textbooks. I don’t want militaristic education to be revived.”

Past related articles:
> War-glorifying textbooks to be used in Tokyo-run junior high schools [July 24, 2015]
> 90 civic groups in Japan and S. Korea oppose war-glorifying, anti-constitutional publishers’ textbooks [June 3, 2015]
> Stop using controversial history textbooks and promote friendship with Asian countries [April 21, 2015]
> JCP issues statement on school textbook screening results [April 7, 2015]
> Abe Cabinet has stronger control over history education [April 7, 2015]