일본 학습지도요령 개정과 현행 중학교 역사교과서의 독도 관련 서술 분석

Abstract

The revised draft of middle school course of study(学習指導要領, the Japanese national curriculum) published in Japan in 2017 included instructions to deal with ‘Dokdo(Takeshima)’ in all social studies subjects. It was the first time that teaching Dokdo was instructed in a stipulated legally binding instructional guideline. Despite remonstrances from the Republic of Korea, the revision of the course of study was confirmed, and it still included the contents related to Dokdo, just like the first revised draft they published. Textbooks that have been newly written and approved under the system of revised course of study have started to be used in schools from the 2021 school year. Accordingly, this study examined the revised version of the course of study, and analyzed the changes in narratives of the middle school 《Historical Field》 textbooks. In particular, this study paid attention to what extent the contents of the public relations document published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (“10 Points to Understand the Takeshima Dispute”), the official stance of the Japanese government, were reflected in the textbook. As a result of the analysis, the newly approved Japanese middle school history textbooks showed the following narrative tendencies when describing Dokdo. First, the amount of narrative regarding Dokdo has increased. Second, the types of evidence selected from the contents of the public relations document published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have increased. Third, ‘historical evidence’ was presented to support the Japanese side's argument. Fourth, no evidence was presented to refute the Korean side's argument. There were some textbooks that deviated from aforementioned narrative tendencies, such as the textbooks from Manabisha(学び舎) and Yamakawa Publishing Company(山川出版社), for certain. However, it is undoubtful that the majority of the Japanese history textbooks are uncritically accepting and publishing the deterrence of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Japan continues to seek methods to teach its own stance on Dokdo, and now, has even secured a legal basis for teaching through the revision of the course of study. It is essential to keep making efforts to present historical evidence in our textbooks and to examine ways to improve our school curriculum regarding Dokdo.