Textbook Controversy: Japanese Schools Vs. Middle School History

The 1947 Japanese School Education Law decrees that the Ministry of Education must examine and approve all textbooks published in Japan[1]. This textbook-screening procedure has strained Japanese relations with neighboring countries. At its core, the ‘textbook controversy’ is a conflict of ideology between patriotic Japanese nationalists and left-leaning academics. Despite Chinese endeavors to employ their own textbook-screening procedure, Japanese censoring of history has, nonetheless, sparked friction between the two countries.

The textbook controversy, prominent since 1963, induced debate when Ienaga Saburo sued the Ministry of Education on the grounds that the authorization system violated his constitutional freedom of expression,
In comparison with the two texts, the New History Textbook provides an extended version of the Sino-Japanese War. The paragraph mentions a shot being fired against the Japanese army, where it then suggests Chinese violence triggered the war. Middle School History, however, minimally outlines the Sino-Japanese War, with no mention of any shot being fired. Nevertheless, both textbooks imply a Chinese “clash” triggered the war, which is inaccurate. Although both textbooks do not give a coherent summary of the transpired events in Beijing, the more comprehensive textbook is also the one that sells a lower percentage of market shares. This suggests that despite the Ministry’s allowance for a new and more comprehensive outline of the transpired events in Japanese wartime history, Japanese schools still teach a version of history mandated by the status quo, also happening to be an unsound summary of
Fujioka, a professor of education at Tokyo University, hoped to correct history textbooks by emphasizing what he thought was a ‘positive view’ of Japan's past and removing from the textbooks any reference to matters associated with what he called ‘dark history.’ By early 2000 Fujioka formed the Japanese Society for The New History Textbook Reform. The Society of the New History Textbook Reform maintains in their opening sentences that an, “accurate definition of history is learning how people of the past lived in the context of the