Japanese PM Shinzo Abe wants more patriotic tone in school textbooks

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's conservative government has begun to pursue a more openly nationalist agenda on an issue that critics fear will push the country further from its postwar pacifism: adding a more patriotic tone to Japan's school textbooks.

The proposed textbook revisions have drawn less outcry abroad than Abe's visit on Thursday to a shrine that honours war dead, including war criminals from the second world war. However, although Abe's supporters argue that changes are needed to teach children more patriotism, liberals warn that they could undercut an anti-war message that they say has helped keep Japan peaceful for decades.

"Prime Minister Abe is feeling the heat from his political base, which feels betrayed that he has not pursued a more strongly right-wing agenda," said Nobuyoshi Takashima, a professor emeritus at the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa who has studied the politics of textbooks. "Classrooms are one place where he can appease ultraconservatives by taking a more firmly nationalist stance."

Abe and the nationalists have long argued that changes in the education system were crucial to restoring the country's sense of self, eroded over decades when children were taught what they call an overly negative view of Japan's wartime behaviour.

The latest efforts for change started slowly, but have picked up speed in recent weeks.

In October, Abe's education minister ordered the school board in Taketomi to use a conservative textbook that it had rejected, the first time the national government has issued such a demand. In November, the Education Ministry proposed new textbook screening standards, considered likely to be adopted, that would require the inclusion of nationalist views of wartime history.