The Tokyo metropolitan board of education said Thursday it will put a junior high school civics textbook authored by nationalists in one of its schools in the next academic year, metro officials said.
All five of the six board members at the meeting voted to send the book to Hakuo High School, a combined junior high and high school in Taito Ward.
The civics textbook is authored mainly by members of the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform, a group of nationalistic academics. It is published by Fusosha Publishing Inc., part of the Fuji-Sankei media conglomerate.
Critics say the book puts more emphasis on state and public affairs than on private issues, and is too heavy-handed in stressing patriotism, praising Japan's past and discussing the positive aspects of the Self-Defense Forces' international activities.
Fusosha's history textbook has drawn international criticism, chiefly from China and South Korea, for playing down Japan's militarist past.
Hakuo is one of four public schools in Tokyo that run from grade seven to the senior year of high school. They are all using Fusosha's history textbook this school year.
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