TOKYO, April 7 (Xinhua) -- In the latest batch of high school textbooks authorized by Japan's education ministry for use from the 2027 academic year, certain history textbooks once again appear to downplay, deny, or even glorify the country's history of wartime aggression.
This is yet another move in a decades-long attempt by Japanese authorities to reshape the historical narrative. Left unchecked, such efforts risk distorting how future generations understand the past and gradually eroding the collective memory in Japan of its wartime atrocities.
Moreover, weaving militarist ideology into the classrooms could stoke extremist sentiment at home while providing ideological cover for Japan's relentless military buildup, a trajectory that poses dangers to Japan itself and casts a long shadow over regional peace and stability.
So, how have Japan's history textbooks been tampered with, who stands behind the repeated revisions, and what consequences could follow?
HOW HAVE HISTORY TEXTBOOKS BEEN REVISED?
While it is an undeniable fact that Japanese militarism waged wars of aggression that inflicted profound suffering on the world, particularly across Asia, the country's right-wing forces have long sought to deny that history and evade responsibility for wartime crimes, with revisions to history textbooks becoming a recurring tool to reshape collective memory and public understanding of the past.
Kumiko Haba, professor emeritus at Aoyama Gakuin University, said efforts to revise history textbooks in Japan have accelerated over the past three decades. She noted that as right-wing forces dismissed factual accounts of Japan's wartime aggression as a "masochistic view of history," some publishers have begun producing history textbooks with a more "patriotic" slant.
To this end, changes in wording, content, and narrative framing have been made to history textbooks.
First, the use of verbal camouflage to sidestep acknowledgement of aggression. One publisher's 2002 textbook addressed Japan's launch of the "Sept. 18 Incident" in 1931 and its subsequent invasion of northeast China under a chapter titled "Japan's Aggression Against China." It described the Japanese Kwantung Army as "having brought about the establishment of Manchukuo," wording that implied the Army's hand in steering the puppet state.
The 2012 edition, however, quietly walked this back, revising the wording to "the Kwantung Army announced the establishment of Manchukuo," thereby diluting any suggestion of manipulation. By 2016, the sanitization had crept into the chapter title itself, which was rewritten as "The Manchurian Incident and the Rise of the Military," with "aggression" nowhere to be found.
Second, trimming or omitting content to downplay Japan's wartime atrocities. A 2008 history textbook by one publisher included the term "Nanjing Massacre" in the main text and cited statements by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East on the death toll, with a footnote stating that China's official figure for the victims stands at 300,000. In the 2023 edition, however, both the term "Nanjing Massacre" and China's official figure had disappeared from the book, while the tribunal's statements were demoted to a footnote.
Third, reshaping narratives to warp and whitewash Japan's wartime history. A 2009 textbook by one publisher described Japan's forced labor practices during its invasion of Southeast Asia as "local people being compelled to perform grueling labor," and acknowledged that Japan cloaked its actions in the rhetoric of "liberating Asia" while in reality "plundering the region for resources." By the 2024 edition, however, this was reframed to say that local people were "mobilized as a workforce," while the criticism that "liberating Asia" was a cynical pretext had been scrubbed from the text entirely.
Researchers reviewing high school history textbooks from nine publishers currently in use across Japan found that only one explicitly describes Japan's war against China as "aggression" and covers the atrocities of the Nanjing Massacre in the main text. Yet that textbook commands a market share of just 0.5 percent, and schools that have adopted it have come under constant pressure.
WHO IS BEHIND CONSTANT REVISION?
In Japan, history textbooks are written by private publishers, vetted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and then selected by local education boards after being approved. The fact that textbooks promoting a distorted view of history can make it through this process and into classrooms points to a troubling conclusion: the Japanese government is the hidden hand behind it.
From the 1960s to the 1980s, Japanese historian Saburo Ienaga brought a series of lawsuits against the Japanese government, challenging repeated government attempts to force changes to his history textbook or reject it outright during the screening process. Courts ultimately ruled that the government's demands to remove references to Unit 731 and the Nanjing Massacre constituted an "abuse of discretion."
In the 1980s, Japan's approval of history textbooks accused of distorting historical facts drew protests and condemnation from neighboring Asian countries, triggering repeated diplomatic disputes. Since the turn of the century, the pace of revisions has only accelerated, making it a persistent source of friction between Japan and its neighbors.
In recent years, the Japanese government has intervened more overtly in the wording of history textbooks. In 2021, a cabinet decision deemed terms such as "military comfort women" and "forcibly taken away" to be inappropriate. Many publishers subsequently revised textbook descriptions of the coercion of "comfort women" and wartime laborers.
According to historian Issei Hironaka of Aichi Gakuin University, the government's stance on the issue of textbooks is a direct manifestation of the erroneous historical views of right-wing politicians, including some Japanese leaders.
Japan's post-war reckoning with militarism was incomplete. Many militarists linked to wartime structures returned to political life, while their descendants inherited the influence to enter politics and even rose to high positions. Among them, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a vocal advocate of revising the "post-war regime," is often cited. His grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, was a suspected war criminal who escaped prosecution.
Within the long-ruling conservative Liberal Democratic Party, such political lineages have helped sustain a bloc of lawmakers sympathetic to revisionist interpretations of history. These figures have consistently used their influence to shape public discourse, with textbook revision serving as a common instrument.
Close ties between politicians and right-wing intellectual circles have further reinforced this trend. Established in 1997, the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform has been one of the most prominent civilian groups advocating for revising history textbooks. Its leading figure, Kanji Nishio, maintained close relations with current Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.
Nishio publicly backed Takaichi during the 2021 leadership race of the ruling party. After he died in late 2024, Takaichi acknowledged at a memorial event that she and Abe had been involved in the organization's initiatives aimed at rewriting history education. She also admitted that the group had lobbied the education ministry over textbook content, with guidance from Nishio.
WHAT RIPPLE EFFECTS MIGHT FOLLOW?
Repeated revisions have had a cumulative impact. By minimizing or omitting key aspects of Japan's modern history, particularly its imperial expansion and wartime aggressions, textbooks risk leaving students with an incomplete or distorted understanding.
Drawing on her teaching experience, Haba said that Japanese history textbooks generally only touch briefly on the modern history of Japan after the Russo-Japanese War, resulting in a large number of young Japanese people without a systematic understanding of modern history.
"Last year, when I was teaching an international relations course at the Graduate School of Hitotsubashi University, I learned that out of 50 Japanese graduate students, only two had studied Japanese modern history," she added.
Haba pointed out that this lack of historical grounding has coincided with a rise in nationalist and populist sentiment in recent years, and many young people, unfamiliar with Japan's wartime actions, are more susceptible to narratives portraying the country as a victim of external threats.
International voices have also expressed concern. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned that the new edition of Japanese school textbooks reflects Tokyo's efforts to instill a sense of revanchism in the younger generation and to deny the outcomes of World War II.
Recent incidents have further fueled debate. A case involving an active-duty member of Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force who forcibly broke into the Chinese embassy in Tokyo drew public attention to the ideological environment within certain institutions.
Takakage Fujita, secretary-general of the Association for Inheriting and Propagating the Murayama Statement, questioned the nature of the education provided within the Self-Defense Forces. Media reports also disclosed that training materials within the Self-Defense Forces have long contained elements of revisionist historical narratives.
The controversy over textbooks is unfolding alongside wider political and security developments. Historical revisionism, including the revision of textbooks, has increasingly intersected with policy changes, contributing to a broader rightward shift in Japan's political landscape.
The Japanese society's understanding of the history of aggression and war responsibility is being deliberately downplayed or even erased. Absurd narratives propagated by the Japanese right wing, such as claims of unfair treatment of Japan after the war and the external threats it faces, are rampant, and neo-militarism continues to rise.
Japan's recent deployment of long-range missiles with "enemy base strike capabilities" has been cited by some observers as evidence that the country is moving away from its post-war pacifist framework.
In this context, critics warn that reinterpretations of history may serve to justify a more assertive security posture. They caution that such trends not only pose a serious threat to regional peace and stability but also may push Japan back into the abyss of war.
Altering textbook language cannot change established historical facts. Instead, Japanese scholars noted that a transparent and honest engagement with history is essential to preventing past tragedies from recurring.
Hironaka emphasized that, whether for individuals or for the nation, to avoid repeating the same mistakes, one must sincerely confront and reflect upon history. "The Japanese must have a correct understanding of historical facts, and Japanese history textbooks must truthfully present Japan's history of aggression." ■
