Education minister Toshiko Abe on Wednesday asked a government panel to consider ways to give schools more discretion to determine class hours and content as part of a planned overall revision of the country's school curriculum guidelines.

The minister also asked the Central Council for Education to come up with measures to improve the media literacy of schoolchildren.

The council, which advises the education minister, will discuss the issues with the aim of presenting a set of curriculum revision proposals by the end of 2026.