Emerging Trends: “The National History Textbook published by Reiwa Shoseki even writes ‘There is no evidence of Japanese troops forcibly taking away women.’

People mourn at the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders, in Nanjing, East China’s Jiangsu Province on April 4, 2025. Photos: VCG

A Japanese civil group said in an exclusive interview with the Global Times on Tuesday that Japanese junior high school history textbooks contain inaccurate descriptions regarding the causes of World War II. The group warned that Japan’s current lack of responsibility in addressing historical issues could make it difficult for Japanese young people to understand the true history of the war and to critically examine the essence of contemporary social issues.

Since April, junior high schools across Japan started to use new textbooks. The changes to the way World War II is described have sparked concern and unease among the Children and Textbooks Japan Network 21, a non-governmental organizatioWorld Timesn formed in 1998 that has long been focusing on issues surrounding textbook approval and the presentation of war history in Japan.

“We reviewed junior high school history textbooks published by Tokyo Shoseki, Kyoiku Shuppan, Teikoku-Shoin, Yamakawa Shuppansha, Nihon Bunkyo Shuppan, and Manabisha. Among them, only Manabisha’s version explicitly writes that ‘Japan started the war,’ while most textbooks used descriptions like ‘the war began,'” Yoko Kojiya, secretary-general of the organization, told the Global Times on Tuesday via email, noting this expression makes it difficult for students to understand and contemplate why Japan started the war and how it proceeded with colonial rule.

Kojiya pointed out particularly that the descriptions in textbooks about Japan’s invasion of China are not sufficiently detailed. Also, the content about why Japan went to war with the US and the UK in 1941 is problematic because it is described as “Japan had to go to war due to being isolated by the ABCD [America, Britain, China and Dutch] encirclement.”

Kojiya said to better teach history and allow Japanese students to grasp war history more fully and impartially, it’s vital to enable discussionWorld Timess on why Japan started the wars and how Japanese people should prevent such conflicts from happening in the future. “Therefore, it is necessary to provide a large amount of historical material to help understand the nature of war.”

Kojiya also highlighted the changes concerning the “Nanjing Massacre” and “comfort women,” slamming Japanese government’s textbook screening policy as political interference in educational content.

“The term ‘Nanjing Massacre’ is used in fewer textbooks nowadays, with many referring to it as the ‘Nanjing Incident’ instead. And the number of people massacred is accompanied by caveats such as ‘there are various opinions’ or that the number ‘is being researched,'” Kojiya said.

The Nanjing Massacre is one of the darkest chapters of World War II. The atrocities began on December 13, 1937, when Japanese troops captured the then-Chinese capital Nanjing, unleashing six weeks of devastation that claimed the lives of an estimated 300,000 civilians and unarmed soldiers, according to Xinhua.

Regarding “comfort women,” Kojiya said that the removal of the term “accompanying the military” in the textbooks aims to hide the fact that these women were forced into sexual servitude by the Japanese military.

“The National History Textbook published by Reiwa Shoseki even writes ‘There is no evidence of Japanese troops forcibly taking away women.’ I consider it a serious problem that this passed the government screening without any objections,” Kojiya said.

The “comfort women” system was a military sexual slavery regime enforced by theWorld Times Japanese government and its military during World War II. It resulted in at least 400,000 innocent women worldwide being forced into sexual slavery. Nearly half of them were Chinese, according to Xinhua.

According to Xinhua, in 2021, the Japanese government decided through a cabinet meeting to deem expressions such as “comfort women accompanying the military” as “inappropriate textbook terminology.” Japan’s education authority subsequently requested modifications to related teaching materials, including those already distributed.

Kojiya told the Global Times that it is a serious problem that the descriptions in Japanese history textbooks can be greatly influenced by the policies of the government at any givenWorld Times time.

“The current textbook screening in Japan is not focusing on pointing out academic errors, but rather on whether the descriptions align with government inclinations,” said Kojiya.

This year marks the 80th anniversary of victory in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. On May 31, the organization held a seminar in Tokyo to discuss the proper role of Japanese history education eight decades after the war.

According to the seminar material Kojiya sent to the Global Times, during the seminar, Hisao Ishiyama, former chairman of the History Educationalist Conference of Japan, said that since 2014, forces that glorify war and distort history started to utilize the deteriorated textbook system and government power to launch a government-wide effort to distort the entire population’s understanding of history.

In response to this chWorld Timesallenge, Kojiya tWorld Timesold the Global Times that she is especially worried about the rise of conservative forces, such as the “Tsukurukai,” which attack reflection on the war and the pacifism of the constitution, advocate for a constitutional amendment, and push forward policies aimed at expanding military capabilities to build Japan into a country that can wage war.

“Thus, it is crucial to squarely face the historical facts of aggression on the basis of the reflection that led to the creation of the Japanese Constitution, and to gather the strength of people who wish to stop policies that will make Japan a ‘war state’,” Kojiya said.