Japanese Textbooks in the Asian History Wars: The Waning Importance of Weapons of Mass Instruction

Abstract

Commentators on Japanese politics in and outside of Japan have issued dire warnings of a looming revisionist victory in the history wars arising from conservative groups’ efforts to influence the selection of textbooks. This reflects a widespread sense of unease about a deepening chill in Korea–Japan ties, not only because of textbooks but also because textbook revision has been linked to attempts to reinterpret Japan’s Constitution, reopen the compelled versus voluntary nature of the “comfort women” system, and reassert the primacy of Japanese rights in regional territorial disputes. In this chapter, I maintain that while a very conservative group now dominates Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leadership and is attempting to set the national political agenda in a manner that makes rightist views appear mainstream and unstoppable, that appearance is deceptive and open to change. As evident in the LDP’s devastating defeat in 2009 and the low turnout of voters that returned the party to power in 2014, the right wing of the LDP’s grip on national power and its current advocacy of conservative revisionism may very well be transitory. Disputes sparked by Japan’s revision of junior high textbooks will likely continue to smolder. But the significance of the history wars may also fade in importance because of efforts by non-governmental organizations to create counter-narratives that transcend borders, divisions among rightist groups, and the strong interest-based ties that make for regional cooperation. These factors mitigate rightist trends and suggest that the sky over Korea–Japan relations is not falling.