The Okinawa prefectural board of education has decided to wait before deciding how to respond to an instruction from the education minister to get the town of Taketomi to use a conservative junior high school textbook.
"We concluded that we want to carefully consider the matter while incorporating expert opinions," Wakako Arakaki, head of the prefectural board, said Wednesday. "As prefectural residents are closely paying attention, we have no choice but to be cautious."
Arakaki said the board will need to hold a formal meeting after having two or three study sessions.
Taketomi's board of education has refused to adopt a conservative social studies textbook published by Ikuhosha Publishing Inc. that was approved by the regional textbook council.
The council also covers the city of Ishigaki and the town of Yonaguni. The Taketomi school board has said the textbook is overly conservative and doesn't contain enough content on Okinawa's burden of hosting U.S. military bases.