英字新聞

The Yomiuri Shimbun November 17, 2013
Review of school textbook screening must help understanding of history
教科書検定基準　領土と歴史の理解に役立つ（11月16日付・読売社説）

It is essential that textbooks children study accurately describe their country’s territories and history.
　子供たちが学ぶ教科書には、自国の領土や歴史についての正しい記述が不可欠である。

Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Minister Hakubun Shimomura has announced that the government plans to review its standards on textbook screenings and aims to implement new criteria beginning next fiscal year.
　下村文部科学相が、教科書検定基準を見直す方針を表明した。来年度の検定からの適用を目指す。

We regard it reasonable that the government has decided to require textbooks to mention its consensus views on historical and territorial issues, a key point of the review.
　見直しの柱として、政府の統一見解があれば、必ず記述するよう求めた点はうなずける。

Japan’s confrontations with China and South Korea over territorial and historical issues have escalated. Teaching Japan’s stance accurately would help children correctly understand the nation’s relationship with other countries. Such efforts are also important for the nation to foster people capable of disseminating the message of the legitimacy of the government’s positions on such issues to the international community.
　領土や歴史認識に関し、中国や韓国との対立が目立つ。日本の立場を教えることは、他国との関係を正しく理解する助けになる。国際社会で日本の正当性を発信する人材を育てる上でも重要だ。

South Korea has unlawfully occupied the Takeshima islands, an inherent part of Japanese territory, and Tokyo has taken the stance that there is no territorial dispute with Beijing over the Senkaku Islands administered by Japan.
　日本固有の領土である竹島については、韓国が不法占拠している。日本が有効支配している尖閣諸島を巡っては、日中間に解決すべき領有権問題は存在しない。

Japan also has frictions with South Korea over the so-called comfort women issue and South Koreans’ rights to seek compensation from Japanese companies for what they claim was forced labor during wartime.
　韓国との間には、いわゆる従軍慰安婦問題や、戦時中に徴用された韓国人労働者の賠償請求権に絡むあつれきも生じている。

The Japanese and South Korean governments reached an accord on damage claims in 1965 that stipulates the issue “was resolved completely and finally.” Thus, the issue of compensation for individual South Koreans has been settled already.
　１９６５年に日韓両国政府が締結した日韓請求権協定には、請求権問題は「完全かつ最終的に解決された」と明記されている。個人請求権の問題は解決済みだ。

It is vital that such Japanese government stance will be expressed in textbooks.
　こうした日本政府の立場を教科書で伝えることは大切だ。

Objectivity is key

In revamping textbook screening standards, the government intends to demand that textbook publishers avoid conclusive descriptions on issues for which it has yet to reach a consensus. We believe this is an appropriate call to secure objectivity of textbooks.
　検定基準の見直しでは、通説が定まっていない事項について、断定的な記述をしないことも盛り込まれる。教科書の客観性を担保する上で適切な措置だろう。

For example, the number of people killed in the 1937 Nanjing Incident has yet to be determined. The figures vary widely, with some Japanese estimates citing several tens of thousands to 200,000 while China estimates more than 300,000 people were killed.
　例えば、１９３７年の南京事件の犠牲者数は確定していない。日本では数万人から２０万人、中国では３０万人以上など諸説がある。

When dealing with such sensitive issues, descriptions unbiased by certain historical views are crucial.
　このような事例を扱う際には、特定の歴史観に偏らないバランスのとれた記述が欠かせない。

In responding to a question in the Diet in April, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed his view that the current textbook screening system does not reflect the spirit of the revised Fundamental Law of Education, which emphasizes the cultivation of patriotism. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s special panel also has called for the screening standards to be improved, saying it has found “descriptions with a self-deprecating view” in history textbooks.
　教科書検定に関し、安倍首相は４月の国会答弁で、愛国心などの涵養(かんよう)をうたった改正教育基本法の精神が生きていないとの認識を示した。自民党の特別部会も「自虐史観の記述がある」として、検定基準の改善を要望していた。

However, the government has stopped short of seeking a review of a provision that requires it to pay certain consideration to Japan’s past relations with its neighboring Asian countries when referring to modern and contemporary history.
　ただ、近隣アジア諸国への配慮を求める近隣諸国条項については今回、見直しが見送られた。

This so-called neighboring-countries provision was added to the textbook screening standards in 1982 to mitigate the fierce reactions from China and South Korea following false media reports that the education ministry had forced a change in the country’s textbooks of the description of an “invasion” of China by the defunct Imperial Japanese Army to an “advance.”
　１９８２年、教科書で旧日本軍の中国「侵略」が「進出」に書き換えられたとの誤報を機に、中国と韓国が反発し、それを沈静化させるために設けられた条項だ。

The creation of such a provision, however, has produced side effects such as self-restrictions by publishers and writers of textbooks.
　だが、その後、教科書会社や執筆者が自己規制するなどの副作用も出てきた。

In the increasingly globalized contemporary society, the nation should respect not only its neighbors but also other countries.
　グローバル化が進む現代社会では、近隣諸国に限らず、他国を尊重する姿勢が求められる。

The historic role played by the provision is apparently coming to an end.
　近隣諸国条項は歴史的役割を終えつつあると言える。

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Nov. 16, 2013)
（2013年11月16日01時33分 読売新聞）