“The Japanese government once again repeated its provocation over Dokdo on April 6 by approving middle school textbooks that contain unjustifiable claims in stronger terms to Dokdo,” statement said.
Seoul condemned distortion of historical fact by the Japanese government and warned it against repeating “past wrongdoings.”
Controversy about the content of Japanese school textbooks was sparked in January 2014, when Japanese Education Minister Hakubun Shimomura announced that the government was revising guidelines for the content of textbooks in order to refer to the South Korean controlled Dokdo islands as “indisputably an inherent part of the territory of Japan.”
School textbooks adhering to the directive were first published last spring, after which South Korea lodged a complaint with Japan.
Comprising two main islets and a group of smaller rocks with a total area of around 230,000 square meters, the Dokdo Islands lie in the Sea of Japan, 87 kilometers from the South Korean island of Ulleung-do.
The dispute between two states over the islands has a long history with a conflicting interpretation of the sovereignty of the islands.
The current controversy is largely due to ambiguity over Tokyo's refusal of sovereignty over occupied territories after World War II including the Dokdo Islands, which has been administered by the South Korean government since 1952.
