Korea denounces Dokdo descriptions in Japanese high school textbooks

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Korea denounces Dokdo descriptions in Japanese high school textbooks

Published: 25 Mar. 2025, 18:03

LIM JEONG-WON
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Taisuke Mibae, minister at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, enters the Foreign Ministry building in Seoul after Japan approved its high school textbooks containing distorted claims to South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo on March 25. [NEWS1]

The Korean government expressed deep regret on Tuesday after Japan's Education Ministry gave passing marks to high school social studies textbooks that falsely claimed Korea's easternmost Dokdo islets as Japanese territory.

The Japanese Education Ministry on Tuesday held a general meeting of a committee screening prospective textbooks, confirming the results of the screening of high school textbooks for classroom use starting in 2026.

Seven comprehensive geography books, 11 comprehensive history books, 12 public studies books, one political science book and one economics book passed the screening. "Public studies" is a Japanese school subject that includes social studies, politics and economics.

All the geography, history and public studies textbooks included references to Dokdo. Some of them included a description that the islets were “inherent territory of Japan,” according to local reports.

In addition, descriptions in the politics and economics textbooks of colonial-era forced labor replaced the word indicating the involuntary nature of the conscription with “mobilized."

South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lee Jae-woong said Tuesday, “The Korean government expresses deep regret over the Japanese government’s approval of high school textbooks that distort historical facts based on its own self-centered view of history."

“We strongly protest the Japanese government’s approval of textbooks that contain unfair claims to Dokdo, which is clearly our inherent territory according to history, geography and international law,” the statement added. “We clarify that we cannot accept any of Japan’s claims regarding Dokdo."

Lee urged the Japanese government to sincerely reflect on the past. “Since future-oriented bilateral relations must be based on a correct understanding of history, we expect the Japanese government to take a responsible attitude in educating future generations.”

Kim Sang-hoon, director general for Asia-Pacific affairs at Seoul's Foreign Ministry, called in Taisuke Mibae, minister at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, to lodge an official protest on Tuesday.

Most of the new high school social studies textbooks that passed the screening included the Japanese government’s continued claim to Dokdo, similar to the textbooks that passed a screening four years ago.

In March 2018, the Japanese government announced high school curriculum guidelines that defined Dokdo as Japan's inherent territory and claimed that Tokyo was working with Seoul to resolve the sovereignty issue peacefully.

The Imperial Shoin Geography Comprehensive Textbook accused Korea of "illegally occupying" Dokdo after unilaterally drawing a border on the high seas in 1952.

Elementary and middle school textbooks also reinforce Japan's false claims to Dokdo.

Seoul is concerned over signs that the Japanese government will continue to teach its students the distorted historical view that Korea forcibly occupied Dokdo after illegally claiming it.

Senior Japanese officials have frequently asserted that Dokdo is "Japanese territory both in light of historical facts and under international law."

Previously, Seoul strongly protested Tokyo’s territorial claims over Dokdo last month following an event held in Japan's Shimane Prefecture laying claim to the easternmost islets.

BY LIM JEONG-WON [[email protected]]