Japan set to okay revised history textbook

The Japanese Education-Science Ministry has decided to authorize the use in schools of a new history textbook authored by a right-wing organization, The Mainichi Shimbun reported Thursday.

The Japanese daily quoted a Tokyo government official as saying that the association had made sweeping revisions of the original book in compliance with requests made by the textbook authorization deliberation committee.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori stated in connection with the textbook issue on Thursday, ``It is regrettable that an outcry was heard from foreign countries on the new school textbook due to the mass media`s decision to release its contents even before we had been given the chance to read it.``

Cabinet administration minister and government spokesman Yasuo Hukuda, responding to a message of concern sent through diplomatic channels by the Korean government, noted that the textbook authorization deliberation committee would make its approval decision in line with existing standards for the compilation of school textbooks.

Meanwhile, an association of Japanese soldiers who were repatriated from China after having been tried as suspected war criminals there and a Japan-China veterans` association issued statements arguing that the textbook in question should not make its way into the hands of Japanese students.

Shim Kyu-Sun ksshim@donga.com