Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Yutaka Kawashima said Monday that his government would and could not press for revisions of the controversial middle school history book authored by a group of rightist historians despite South Korea's strong demand that it do so.

The South Korean ambassador to Tokyo has been called home from Japan as part of a government protest to the junior high school history textbook, which includes depictions of Japan's military aggressions in Asia that are widely considered to be inaccurate or misleading.

Meeting reporters, Kawashima said that he understands that the textbook has aroused the anger of South Koreans, but the Japanese government has no choice but to try to persuade South Korea to understand Japan's action.

He made it clear that the Japanese government has no plan to press for revisions of the textbook in question, nor will it try to dissuade middle schools from adopting the textbook for teaching.