OSAKA -- A group that supports revising history textbooks to exclude or downplay atrocities committed by Japan during the first half of the 20th century is now pushing for inclusion of North Korea's abductions of Japanese nationals as an example of human rights abuse.
The Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform, which published a history text in 2001 that angered China, South Korea and other nations for its attempt to cast Japan's militaristic past in a positive light, is now pushing for schools to portray the abductions of Japanese by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s as a human rights issue.
The society, widely regarded as nationalistic, sponsored a symposium in December with prominent relatives of people who were abducted by North Korea.