A number of publishers have asked to update their senior high school textbooks to include last year's Great East Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima nuclear power plant crisis.
A number of publishers have asked to update their senior high school textbooks to include last year's Great East Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima nuclear power plant crisis.The revised textbooks would be ready for the next academic school year, which gets under way in April 2013.Additions will also be made to mention the collapse of the "myth of safety" concerning nuclear power generation, safety standards for radioactive substances in food and the creation of the Reconstruction Agency.According to the education ministry, requests for revisions related to the March 11, 2011, disaster have been filed for 53 of all 218 senior high school textbooks (not including those on specialized subjects) that passed the ministry's screening procedures in March. The ministry has approved all those requests.Requests for such revisions have been filed for all 12 textbooks on "Contemporary Society," which the education ministry's Courses of Study says should touch upon issues of the environment, and for all five textbooks on "Geography A," where students are required to discuss disaster prevention.Shimizu Shoin Co.'s "World History A" replaced the photo of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster with a photo of the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant and added the statement: "Reactor buildings were destroyed, and radioactive substances were spewed over broad regions and continue to have a serious impact on people's lives."Daiichi Gakushusha Corp.'s "Politics and Economy" and Tokyo Shoseki Co.'s "Contemporary Society" said that the Fukushima disaster overturned a "myth of safety" of nuclear power generation and that energy policy needs a shift.Kairyudo Publishing Co.'s "Basic Home Economics" graphically illustrated safety standards for the content of radioactive cesium in food, including 50 becquerels per kilogram of milk and 100 becquerels per kilogram of general food items.Many of the updated textbooks also mention the activities of volunteer workers in quake-ravaged areas of northeastern Japan."The disaster provided an opportunity to rethink human bonds," said a representative of Tokyo Shoseki, one such publisher.The latest revisions will be reflected in the "sample books" for school officials who are responsible for the choice of textbooks to be used for the next academic year. The revised textbooks will also be shown to the public during exhibitions that will be held across the country from June 15.