The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected an appeal by a university professor who has been demanding 1 million yen in compensation from the government for textbook screenings he alleged were unconstitutional.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Nobuyoshi Takashima of the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa originally filed the suit in June 1993. He was demanding compensation for mental anguish he claimed was caused by the 1992 screenings of a high school text on modern Japanese society he helped write.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Takashima, who was teaching social studies at Tsukuba University High School in Tokyo at the time, claimed he was forced to give up working on the book and his constitutional rights were violated.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>In handing down the ruling, presiding Justice Kazuko Yokoo said there had been 'no abuse of discretionary authority' on the part of the education ministry when it screened the textbook.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>'I have fought –

13 years, and the ruling is as unacceptable as it is superficial," Takashima said.

Kazushige Yamashita, director of the division in charge of screenings, said the ruling is reasonable because it confirmed the legitimacy and need for the screenings.

The Yokohama District Court partially accepted Takashima's claim in April 1998 and ordered the state to pay 200,000 yen in compensation to him, but the Tokyo High Court overturned the lower court ruling in May 2002.

The district court found that two of the four changes the then Education Ministry told Takashima to make were illegal.