Education minister Hakubun Shimomura has instructed Okinawa Prefecture's board of education to take action over the refusal by a small town's school board to adopt a conservative social studies textbook.

For the second school year in a row, the town of Taketomi has rejected a textbook by Ikuhosha Publishing Inc. selected by the textbook adoption council.

The law covering the distribution of free textbooks includes a provision requiring that the same teaching resources be used throughout the region under that adoption council's purview.