A Japanese daily The Asahi Shimbun reported Thursday that 20 scholars from South Korea, China, and Japan have been working since February on a new Northeast Asia history textbook for common use in the three countries.
The textbook describes Japan's modern history from an objective standpoint, and has a chapter on the Sino-Japanese wars in the 19th and 20th centuries, including the fall of Japan as imperial power.
The report said because the new textbook describes only the history of Northeast Asia, it does not qualify for the Japanese government's approval for use as a history textbook in Japanese schools.
Meanwhile, the Hokkaido Education Board announced that 24 of its secondary school districts decided against using the controversial right-wing history textbook.