A dispute over school textbooks escalated yesterday as Tokyo accused Beijing of whipping up anti-Japanese sentiment and the South Korean government summoned the Japanese ambassador over the issue.
Japan's decision on Tuesday to approve a textbook which both China and South Korea say glosses over Japanese wartime atrocities has opened old wounds.
The Japanese ambassador to Seoul was summoned yesterday to receive South Korea's protest over the textbook, one day after the ambassador in Beijing was called in to hear a similar protest from the Chinese government.
PHOTO: AFP
Koreshige Anami, Japan's envoy to Beijing, responded to the protest with robust criticism of the Chinese government.
"Anami expressed concern about recent anti-Japanese demonstrations in various cities in China," an embassy spokesman said. "He asked the Chinese authorities to take necessary measures to protect Japanese people and companies' activities in China.
"He observed that patriotic education in China may have caused some anti-Japanese feelings among young Chinese people. Anami asked the Chinese government to pay full attention to this aspect," the spokesman said.
China's state-controlled media reacted furiously, accusing Japan of not being able to face up to its past.
"One thing is for sure, and that is a country's prestige is not built on subterfuge, but its acknowledgment of the past," the China Daily said in an editorial, which called the textbook a "political provocation."
"Without a consensus on the history issue and other disputes, the Asian peoples cannot place their trust in Japan's desire to play a bigger role in world affairs," it said.
Local academics warned that the Sino-Japanese row may spill over into trade.
Some Chinese shops have stopped selling selected Japanese goods in protest, an industry official confirmed yesterday. It was not clear how many stores had stopped selling Japanese products, but one association official said the boycott campaign had begun in Shanghai and the northeastern city of Shenyang.
In recent days, crowds opposed to Japan's bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council have gathered outside Japanese-owned department stores and supermarkets in several Chinese cities.
In some instances, they have smashed windows or tried to hoist the Chinese flag.
Anami defended Japan's decision to approve the textbook, one of eight that can be used to instruct students aged 13 to 15 from April next year, saying it was a question of freedom of expression.
"Textbooks for Japanese schools are not made by the government or government organizations, but by private companies," the spokesman said, citing Anami. "In Japan we ensure freedom of speech and publication. So if draft textbooks submitted by publishing companies to the ministry of education fulfill certain criteria, they are allowed to be published."
The book avoids the word "invasion" when it refers to Japan's military occupation of other Asian countries in the first half of the 20th century.
It also refers to the 1937 Nanjing Massacre -- in which some historians say at least 300,000 Chinese civilians were slaughtered by Japanese troops -- as an "incident" in which "many" Chinese were killed.
A ship that appears to be taking on the identity of a scrapped gas carrier exited the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, showing how strategies to get through the waterway are evolving as the Middle East war progresses. The vessel identifying as liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier Jamal left the Strait on Friday morning, ship-tracking data show. However, the same tanker was also recorded as having beached at an Indian demolition yard in October last year, where it is being broken up, according to market participants and port agent’s reports. The ship claiming to be Jamal is likely a zombie vessel that
Japan is to downgrade its description of ties with China from “one of its most important” in an annual diplomatic report, according to a draft reviewed by Reuters, as relations with Beijing worsen. This year’s Diplomatic Bluebook, which Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government is expected to approve next month, would instead describe China as an important neighbor and the relationship as “strategic” and “mutually beneficial.” The draft cites a series of confrontations with Beijing over the past year, including export controls on rare earths, radar lock-ons targeting Japanese military aircraft and increased pressure around Taiwan. The shift in tone underscores a deterioration
LAW CONSTRAINTS: The US has been pressing allies to send warships to open the Strait, but Tokyo’s military actions are limited under its postwar pacifist constitution Japan could consider deploying its military for minesweeping in the Strait of Hormuz if a ceasefire is reached in the war on Iran, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi said yesterday. “If there were to be a complete ceasefire, hypothetically speaking, then things like minesweeping could come up,” Motegi said. “This is purely hypothetical, but if a ceasefire were established and naval mines were creating an obstacle, then I think that would be something to consider.” Japan’s military actions are limited under its postwar pacifist constitution, but 2015 security legislation allows Tokyo to use its Self-Defense Forces overseas if an attack,
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) yesterday faced a regional election battle in Rhineland-Palatinate, now held by the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD). Merz’s CDU has enjoyed a narrow poll lead over the SPD — their coalition partners at the national level — who have ruled the mid-sized state for 35 years. Polling third is the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which spells a greater threat to the two centrist parties in several state elections in September in the country’s ex-communist east. The picturesque state of Rhineland-Palatinate, bordering France, Belgium and Luxembourg and with a population of about 4 million,
RSS