To Earl Kinmonth,

I know better than to be a right-wing Nihonjinron scholar. I have never said that only Japanese can understand Japan, and I understand that some non-Japanese people have better understanding of Japan than some Japanese people. I am just saying that we cannot dismiss the importance of childhood experience (and in the context of this thread, 'student'
experience and perspective). In some cases, it could be quite difficult to understand a country, whether Japan or other countries, without such experience (here I am not talking about only Japanese history but things general). It seems to me that you underestimate the importance of insider experience when you say '"Insider" experience is just that. A view of a particular place at a particular point in time.', although insider or native experience is not almighty.
I think we are in a better position to understand a country, whether Japan or other countries, from both insider and outsider perspectives when we have both native and international experience so that we can conduct a good comparative analysis.

I said six years, as I think I learned Japanese history to some extent at a junior high school and chose Japanese history as an elective when I was a high school student. That's it.

I understand the textbook approval system, including some major controversies such as 'Ienaga sosho'.

I agree with your argument for the importance of student and teacher survey, although it is not almighty and has its own problems. You ask whether teachers are actually using the textbook, but it seems to me that it is quite extreme to assume that most teachers are not using the textbook at all. In other words, a more reasonable assumption is that most teachers use textbooks more or less, if not always but at least occasionally as a basic reference material. In my case, there was only a teacher of 'world history' who used his own materials as well as the textbook but all other history teachers used textbooks as the main teaching tool.

I understand that your samples are some students at two most prestigious universities (according to you), but samples are still biased.

I agree with you 'nasty bit' argument.

Ancient (koten) history is part of Japanese history and Japanese ancient text is called 'kobun'. We need to rely on solid statistics to argue how popular Japanese history, world history, kobun and kanbun are among high school students as electives for university entrance exams.

I do not necessarily disagree with your argument of the importance of Japanese history textbooks for Japanese students and as some argue, its importance should not be overestimated (In this respect, I was just saying that Japanese history textbooks are a major source of the knowledge of Japanese history (not only 1930s or later but also before) for at least some Japanese people). Also, as you argue, Japanese textbooks may be symbolic in a sense. However, whether Japanese school textbooks matter in students' view of Japanese history or not, they have practical importance in both Japanese domestic politics and Japan's international relations with East Asia (and the USA). This is what I am much more interested.

Hiro Watanabe

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Dr. Hiroaki Richard Watanabe, D.Phil. Oxford, MA Yale, BA Tokyo Lecturer, School of East Asian Studies, University of Sheffield

http://www.shef.ac.uk/seas/staff/japanese/watanabe.html
http://www.wreac.org/people/WREAC-People/Core-Researche
rs/Watanabe%2C-Hiroaki-Richard/details