The Foreign Ministry has posted English information on its Web site on Japan's textbook screening process, hoping to clear up "misunderstandings" abroad, a ministry spokesman said Wednesday.
The government will post Chinese and Korean versions of its explanation "as soon as possible," Foreign Ministry Press Secretary Hatsuhisa Takashima said.
"There is opposition to and criticism of the screening system by some foreign countries stemming from a misunderstanding of it," Takashima said, without elaborating.
Takashima seemed to be referring to the mistaken perception in some countries that the government publishes textbooks and has the final say on which books are used.
School textbooks in Japan are compiled by private publishers and must get government approval before they can be offered to schools.
The government can advise, but does not order, the publishers to change the content.
Local boards of education are then free to choose from among the approved textbooks. Principals make the final decision on textbooks at private and state-run schools.
The screening process for history and civics studies textbooks is a source of dispute with other parts of Asia, particularly China, which suffered under Japanese invasion, and South Korea, which was under Japanese colonial rule.