And in your regularly scheduled Dokdo news, it appears the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (boy, that must be a busy place to work) has instructed publishing companies to include references to the Dokdo islets as Japanese territory in high school history, civics and geography textbooks, reports CBS.
Announcing the screening results for next year’s high school textbooks, the ministry said the texts in the afore mentioned subjects need to clearly refer to the Senkaku and Dokdo islands as Japanese territory. The instructions were handed down in accordance with the Japanese government position that the Dokdo islets are historically and legally part of Japan.
Tokyo issued similar instructions for middle school textbooks last year, but this is the first time such instructions have been handed down for high school books.
In fact, during this year’s screening, the ministry instructed the publishers of one textbook, which said Korea and Japan were “negotiating” over Dokdo, to “correct” its description to, “Dokdo is part of Shimane Prefecture, but Korea is claiming sovereignty.”
It also ordered a history textbook to drop reference to Japan’s alleged forcing of Koreans to take Japanese names during the colonial period when the textbook said “a problem was caused” after Aso Taro, who is currently Foreign Minister, “said Koreans wanted to take Japanese names, a statement that goes against historical fact.”
Another textbook ran afoul of the ministry for referring to women “who became comfort women due to the Japanese Army.” The ministry said the statement could lead to misunderstanding. Instead, the reference was changed to, “women who became comfort women of the Japanese Army.”
But fear not! The Korean government plans to respond strongly to the Japanese move.
UPDATE: On a positive note, Korean Wave star “Yonsama” Bae Yong-jun appears in one Japanese high school geography textbook.
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For the record, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology is called Mombu-Kagakusho (文部科学省) in Japanese, which just means “Ministry of Education and Science.” I have no clue why they decided to make the English name so damn long.
It’s probably the highest-level unwieldy translation in Japanese government, now that the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Posts and Communications (called 総務省 Somusho in Japanese) lost the “posts” in its English name.
And if you were wondering how to pronounce that in Korean, it’s Munbu-Gwahakseong (문부과학성). And it is curious that the English name would be translated in that manner. Personally, my favorite Korean ministry translation is for the yeoseong-gajokbu (여성가족부), which means “Women and Family Ministry.” The official English name, however, is “Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.”
Ah yes. Japan just got a gender equality minister. She seems to have a bit of a Cinderella complex when it comes to fashion, though.
And the Chinese, slowly building a modern navy and air force, snicker in the corner.
The common usage names are much more practical; such as MOCIE and the Korean equivalent 산자부, for the Ministry of Commerce Industry and Energy (산업자원부). Gotta love the idea of halving words. The japanese have made an art of it.
Oh, and yeah… how dare they claim the islands.
And to those of us being neither Japanese or Korean, and thus not having a dog in this contest, this is different from Korean posturing on the issue, how exactly? Unlike the Koreans, the Japanese seems to a dispassionate observer to be willing to at least acknowledge that Korea contests its claims.
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