Japanese scholars find fault in textbook

A group of seven Japanese scholars said Wednesday that they had found a number of factual errors contained in a textbook written by the Society for History Textbook Reform consisting of nationalistic historians. Among the scholars were Haruki Wada, honorary professor of University of Tokyo, and former Meiji University Professor Fukuju Unno.

They told a press conference at the House of Councilors hall that they discovered at least 51 errors through a review of the textbook and would deliver the findings to the Ministry of Education and Science, the publishing house and the authors of the disputed text asking for revisions. More than 20 of the errors concern relations with Korea.

The scholars warned against schools using such a textbook containing so many misrepresentations despite official screening, and they called for corrections to the errors they had pointed out if the text is to be used at all. That the Society for Textbook Reform agreed to revise 137 items in the text means it lost, the group said, and if the textbook in question is adopted, it would virtually subject Korean and Chinese students to racial discrimination.

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Shim Kyu-Sun ksshim@donga.com