Metropolitan state-run six-year secondary schools are elite educational bodies born of recent educational reforms.

The history textbook distorted historical facts pertaining to the Nanking Massacre and Korean women forced by Japan to serve as military "comfort women" and justified Japan's wars of invasion. It had already led to a serious diplomatic disputes between Korea and Japan in 2001.

In particular, the revised edition erased parts on the Nanking Massacre and the forced recruitment of comfort women, acts to which Japan had vaguely admitted.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education held a conference Thursday and five out of its six members agreed to approve the textbook. Not one protested.

Tokyo governor Ishihara Shintaro has supported the use of the questionable textbooks.

The history textbook is only used in seven private schools, three Ehime Prefecture schools, Tokyo metropolitan learning nursing schools and Ehime Prefecture School for the Deaf. That is a 0.039 percent selection rate, with 521 volumes in use.

However, the approval of the revised textbook would greatly influence next year's adaptation of new middle school textbooks nationwide and inspections of revised textbooks that will be held next April.

On the other hand, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Shin Bong-kil expressed in his opinion that, "the textbook is based on a historical perspective of national chauvinism and justifies Japan's historic mistakes." He added, "It could provide wrong historic concepts to the young generation and may be a hurdle in the cooperation of the two countries when both of them try to solve past problems and build a friendly relationship."

He added, "We need to actively help Japan to become wiser to find its wrong doings on its own."

(Jeong Gwon-hyeon, khjung@chosun.com )