Preliminary Reports on Changes of Anthropology Description in High School Textbooks (Japanese History and World History) that Have Received Official Approval

Abstract

We examined senior high school textbooks of history (Japanese history and World history) certified by the Ministry of Education and Science, in order of their published dates. The examined textbooks, two types of World history and Japanese history published and used from 1959 to 2007, are all limited to one publisher, Yamakawa Shuppansha. The items examined in each textbook are the number of pages, words, footnotes and the occupied area of figures and plates in the texts presenting the human evolution; human evolution in World history, and from where and when people came to the Japanese Archipelago in the Japanese history. The preliminary reports of this examination are illustrated in 8 graphs and 2 word lists. In the World history textbooks, the description of human evolution was reduced after the renovation of the guideline of teaching and learning in senior high school (Course of Study) in 1999. On the other hand, in the textbooks of Japanese history, the description of the “origin of Japanese people” was not reduced, but the descriptions of the first inhabitants and Paleolithic culture were changed to those of epi-Neolithic Yayoi culture and the origin of Japanese indigenous nation (Wa or Yamato). The Anthropological Society of Nippon positively proceeds to make new guidebooks and to re-educate teachers and textbook writers of the history subject in senior high schools.