For the 16th straight year, the U.S. State Department has once again critically noted the controversial issue of Japan’s historical distortions in textbooks in its annual report on human rights by nation.

In its 2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practice released last Monday, the department said “government approval of history textbooks remains a controversial issue” in its assessment on Japan, under the section titled “Restrictions on Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.”

It said the guidelines of Japan’s education ministry “include the principle that textbooks should align with the national government’s official stance on issues.”

It went on to say that “the approval process for history textbooks, particularly its treatment of the country’s 20th century colonial and military history, continued to be a subject of controversy.”

Given that the report analyzed the year 2022, the department was apparently referring to controversy that erupted after some Japanese textbooks that were authorized in March of last year removed the terms “forced labor” and “sex slaves for Japanese soldiers.”

The inclusion of such distortions in Japanese textbooks as a “subject of controversy” or “controversial” issue in the State Department’s report was confirmed on Thursday to have been ever present since 2007.