East Sea labeled ‘Sea of Japan’ in int’l school textbooks

Published : Oct 14, 2016 - 18:04 Updated : Oct 14, 2016 - 18:05

Over 70 percent of the textbooks used at international schools here labeled the East Sea -- the body of water between South Korea and Japan -- as the “Sea of Japan,” research showed Friday, leading the government to start a correction campaign.

The Ministry of Education conducted a survey of the textbooks used at 47 international and foreign schools in the country from Aug. 16 to Sept. 2 and found that 24 of 33 textbooks had used only the term Sea of Japan. The nine others had both terms written.

The data did not include two Japanese international schools based in South Korea.

Sixteen schools used textbooks that stipulated the sea as Japanese property while 10 used textbooks with both names.

(Yonhap)

Korea and Japan have been at loggerheads over the name of the sea that separates them. Korea insists it should be referred to as the East Sea.

The Sea of Japan is viewed as one of the legacies of Japan’s colonization of Korea from 1910 to 1945. Japan registered the name with the International Hydrographic Organization in the late 1920s.

The Education Ministry said it would push for corrections and provide the schools with relevant materials.

It also scheduled a four-day program to educate faculties from the international schools, inviting 27 social studies teachers to Dokdo on the east coast of the peninsula.

The Academy of Korean Studies also said it will request publishers to rectify the terms used in the textbooks.

By Jo He-rim (herim@heraldcorp.com)