竹島問題の歴史

26.3.08

Takeshima Not Mentioned in Japanese Educational Guidelines

These days it seems that both Korea and Japan have stopped talking about the dispute over Liancourt Rocks (Dokdo/Takeshima), apparently in an attempt to improve the relationship between the two countries. Even scholars from both countries seem to be avoiding public discussion of the subject. And according to a Korean article HERE, the Japanese Ministry of Education has removed mention of Takeshima from its educational guidelines to Japanese teachers.

I think it is good that both the Korean and Japanese governments are trying to improve relations by not making Liancourt Rocks (Dokdo/Takeshima) an issue, but I do not understand why the Japanese government would not want Japanese students to know the facts surrounding the dispute?

Teaching about the Liancourt Rocks dispute and not making it a diplomatic issue are two separate things. Japanese educators should be allowed to do their job while Japanese diplomats do theirs.

The following is my translation of a Korean article, HERE, from Korea's "Maeil Business" newspaper:
"'Dokdo' Contents Removed from Japanese Educational Guidelines"

It has been revealed that the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology removed mention of Japanese sovereignty over Dokdo (Takeshima) and Senkaku (尖閣) Islands in a February amendment to its Educational Guidelines. This measure was adopted by Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who places importance on Asian diplomancy, to avoid friction with Korea and China.

However, during a meeting of the Education Committee of the House of Representatives, which convenced on the 21st, Democratic Party Diet Representative Maki Yoshio said, "Takeshima (Dokdo) and Senkaku must be mentioned in the guidelines," and "showing concern for and compromising with neighboring countries are separate issues."

3 comments:

  1. Gerry, it wasn't "removed" from the text book. Don't always believe Korean news when it comes to Takeshima/Dokdo. The Japanese news reported that it wasn't particuraly mentioned in the "guidelines for the teachers" by the Ministry of Education, thus the Diet Representative questioned it. And the Minister answered that it should be included, that's all. There are few text books who has some lines about Takeshima and I think that not going to change. Ministry considers Takeshima as Japanese territory, but some text book authors think it is too trivial to mention particularly in the school text book. Unlike Korean, Japanese hate to use this issue to boost nationalism among young people or Ministry of Education try to avoid conflict between Korea, which I think is extremely silly. And all the geography books clearly draw Takeshima as Japanese territory. For example, there is no Takeshima on Chugoku Area (中国地方), but it is on the whole Japan map with border line between Ulleundo and Takeshima in my daughter's text book and atlas. It's not going to change even in the new version. The Korean article is misleading as always, though I don't know they are doing it deliberately or they just don't have enough ability to understand Japanese language.

    The Japanese news is here.

    More about this here.

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  2. Thank you, Kaneganese.

    Anyway, it does seem to be a lot quieter than it was last year.

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  3. Anonymous29/3/08 17:32

    Japan blinked.

    This looks like support for Japan's bogus claim to Takeshima is being killed from the top down. Remember Takeshima Day was the muddle made by Shimane Prefecture in 2005 that has soured Japan~Korea relations ever since. Back then the Japan's national government did not support Takeshima Day and it seems they are still losing Prime Minister's encouragement on the matter.

    It appears the Japanese national government is finally accepting the truth about Dokdo and had decided to put Japan~Korean relations ahead of Shimane Prefectures greedy ambitions. Without backing from the Japanese national government the Takeshima lobbyists are in big trouble.

    This is good news for Korea.

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