Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Tuesday proposed an academic solution to a row over South Korea's demand for changes to Japanese history textbooks accused of glossing over Japan's militarist past.
The new Japanese premier told reporters these books could not be "revised again" as they had already been approved by the education ministry with certain modifications.
"But we need to take sincerely what the Republic of Korea says and study what step we can take in the future as there are differences in the perceptions of historians on both sides," he said at his official residence.
Koizumi was speaking after South Korean Foreign Minister Han Seung-Soo summoned Japanese Ambassador Terusake Terada to his office in Seoul to request the Tokyo government change 35 passages in eight newly-approved textbooks.
Asked if South Korea's move construed interference in internal affairs, the premier said he told the South Korean ambassador here last week he had "no objections to criticism based on the observation of results."
Koizumi added he had suggested to the envoy, Choi Sang-Yang, "Let us study how we can cooperate toward the future and put the issue in a better direction with the help of historians and experts."
South Korea has been at the forefront of Asian protests over the books, which have emerged as a pressing problem for reform-minded Koizumi who took office on April 26.
The Tokyo government has approved the textbooks, which avoid references to Japan's pre-World War II invasion of its Asian neighbours and play down events such as the Nanjing massacre in China and the use of tens of thousands of Asian women as sex slaves for Japanese troops.
Many of the women were from Korea, where memories remain bitter over Japan's brutal colonial rule from 1910 to 1945.
In a statement, Japanese Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka said South Korea's latest request was believed to be a result of "serious and cautious" studies which took into consideration Japan's historical perception and school textbook screening system.
"Our country's government for its part deems it necessary to take it earnestly and fully examine it," she said.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda, meanwhile, told a regular news conference that under the screening system textbooks could not be revised "unless there are errors of fact." But he promised a "full examination" of the South Korean request.
Education Minister Atsuko Toyama also said her ministry would weigh the request by hearing opinions from experts "including examiners of the textbooks."
The ministry approved the textbooks on April 3 for use in junior high schools in the next academic year starting in April 2002.
Han, the South Korean foreign minister, called for Tokyo to quickly "correct" the passages in the textbooks, which "distorted, downplayed or omitted" Japanese wartime atrocities and invasions.
Most of the 35 passages in question are contained in a history textbook edited by the Society for History Textbook Reform, a group of avowed Japanese nationalists, who say Japan has been too "masochistic" in handling its past.
According to press reports from Seoul, South Korea claims this textbook conceals acts of aggression and exploitation committed in the colonial rule and minimises public resistance.
The book says that Britain, the United States and Russia raised no objections to Japan's annexation of Korea and that "some people in Korea accepted the annexation."
It also said the colonial rule led to the development of railways and irrigation systems.
(China Daily 05/08/2001)
