Through a Sankei Shimbun column by Rui Abiru, this chapter examines the death of former Ehime Governor Moriyuki Kato, the return of the term “military comfort women” in textbook screening, the rejection of Jiyusha’s history textbook, and the harmful effects of the “neighboring countries clause.” It questions the leftist forces and screening system that have distorted Japan’s history education.

2020-03-27
Just as I was astonished by the obsession and persistence of leftist forces staking everything on degrading Japan’s history, news arrived of the death of Moriyuki Kato, former governor of Ehime Prefecture.
Yesterday’s Sankei Shimbun also proved that the Sankei Shimbun is now the most decent newspaper.
The following is from a serial column by Rui Abiru, one of the finest active journalists.
The former Ehime governor who appealed for the improvement of textbooks.
In textbooks to be used in junior high schools from Reiwa 3, the term “military comfort women,” which had not been used since the screening for Heisei 16 textbooks, has returned.
This was a term coined by the writer Natsumitsu Senda, a former Mainichi Shimbun reporter, and it is clearly inappropriate to teach it as historical fact in textbooks.
On the other hand, the Jiyusha textbook promoted by the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform, which aims to normalize textbooks in which leftist forces have run rampant, was rejected in the screening in a form that did not even allow resubmission.
Just as I was astonished by the obsession and persistence of leftist forces staking everything on degrading Japan’s history, news arrived of the death of Moriyuki Kato, former governor of Ehime Prefecture.
Speaking of Mr. Kato, what remains vivid in my mind is that, through his experience as governor, he argued for the legitimacy of the approval procedures concerning the plan by the Kake Educational Institution to establish a faculty of veterinary medicine, and developed the following argument.
“It is a strange Diet that puts no scalpel at all into the Japan Veterinary Medical Association. The thoroughgoing ‘evil’ is the Veterinary Medical Association, which has crushed the establishment of new veterinary faculties in order to protect its vested interests to the death.”
The harmful effects of the “neighboring countries clause.”
By coincidence, Mr. Kato contributed an article to the special feature “Cutting into Textbook Screening” in the currently available April issue of the monthly Seiron, in which he described the circumstances by which the “neighboring countries clause,” requiring consideration for neighboring countries in textbook screening standards, was added, and criticized it as follows.
“It is certain that the ‘neighboring countries clause’ made textbook descriptions even worse.”
According to the article, in Showa 57, when the mass media all at once made a major false report in the “textbook false-reporting incident,” claiming that the Ministry of Education had made textbooks change Japan’s “invasion” into “advance” in textbook screening — the Sankei Shimbun corrected its report — Mr. Kato was Director of the General Affairs Division of the Ministry of Education.
Mr. Kato pressed the mass media companies, saying, “Are you not ashamed to spread such false reports?”
However, the reporters, except for those of the Sankei Shimbun, pretended nothing had happened and did not try to correct their mistakes.
As a result, the cabinet of Zenko Suzuki at that time yielded to the pressure of China and South Korea, which reacted fiercely, and Chief Cabinet Secretary Kiichi Miyazawa issued what Mr. Kato called “a statement as if national sovereignty had been handed over,” explaining that the matter would be “corrected under the responsibility of the government” and that “the screening standards would be revised.”
And that became the basis for establishing the neighboring countries clause.
“In Heisei 7, descriptions concerning ‘military comfort women’ appeared all at once in all junior high school history textbooks. The same is true of descriptions concerning the Nanking Incident, and of casually including numbers of victims. These may be called harmful effects of the ‘neighboring countries clause.’”
After pointing this out, Mr. Kato also wrote the following hope for the improvement of textbooks.
“However, the Courses of Study have truly improved, so if textbook screening continues in a way that conforms to the Courses of Study, textbooks will surely become better.”
A situation that cannot be watched in silence.
However, looking at the results of the present screening, unfortunately, events are moving in the direction opposite to Mr. Kato’s hopes.
The problems of a screening system deliberated behind closed doors have become clear.
To begin with, why did Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, together with his close ally the late former Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa and others, establish in Heisei 9 the Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers’ group, Young Diet Members Thinking about Japan’s Future and History Education?
The trigger was their growing sense of crisis over the fact that “military comfort women” had been included in all junior high school history textbooks.
Under the Abe cabinet, which has worked on reforms such as the Courses of Study, the ironic present situation in which descriptions of military comfort women have returned to textbooks cannot be left unaddressed.
Will there not emerge, regardless of party affiliation, a movement among Diet members to listen to Mr. Kato’s appeal and reform the way textbook screening is conducted and the neighboring countries clause?
Editorial writer and Political News Department editorial board member.