Materials covered in textbooks act to legitimize knowledge and values of a society in a very concrete manner. Information in history and social studies textbooks are inherently contentious, as debates regarding textbook adoption, historical memory, religious issues and scientific contents demonstrate. This study will examine minority representations in Japanese education and show they do matter in terms of how knowledge is legitimized and how students respond.

This paper explores two interrelated issues surrounding minority education in Japan. First, through a content analysis of junior high school textbooks, I show that discussions of minority issues, if discussed at all, highlight a passive rather than active focus. Despite the relative lack of contemporary engagement with minority issues in textbooks, a preliminary survey of university students shows that there is an active desire to learn more about minorities in Japan. The manner of addressing such issues, I argue, is in large part due to the absence of these issues in entrance examinations. The changing structure of entrance exams may change how teachers can approach these issues, though the level of such change remains to be seen.