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The man behind the directive for the Korea¡¯s Dokdo to be identified as Japanese territory in the island country¡¯s textbooks says it is ¡°essential¡± for school texts to describe matters ¡°from the official standpoint of our country.¡± Japan¡¯s Education Minister Kenji Kosaka made the remark on Friday.
"We have always demanded exactness in descriptions," Kosaka told reporters after a Cabinet meeting. "During our inspection this time, we noticed an increase in the number of books that referred to Takeshima [the Japanese name for Dokdo] and the Senkaku Islands [controlled by China], but the descriptions varied and certain expressions could have led to confusion, so we demanded a precise description.¡±
Meanwhile, Shimane Prefecture Governor Nobuyoshi Smida, who led a campaign to designate a ¡°Takeshima Day¡± to enforce Japan¡¯s territorial claim, hailed the directive on Friday. ¡°It is important to deal with it in schools. I highly praised it as an auspicious undertaking,¡± he said.
Japan¡¯s Mainichi Shimbun reported the prefecture¡¯s Takeshima Day and lobbying of textbook publishers appear to have born fruit. According to the prefecture¡¯s education committee, all high schools there are using a text that claims, ¡°Dokdo is Japanese land.¡±
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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