Chinese textbooks are "extreme" in their interpretation of history, Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said Sunday, a day after China's president demanded Tokyo do more to improve relations damaged by new Japanese textbooks that allegedly whitewash wartime atrocities.
Machimura meanwhile hailed the Saturday meeting between Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Chinese President Hu Jintao in Jakarta, saying it has paved the way to start repairing battered ties that have led to anti-Japan protests across China.
"From the perspective of a Japanese person, Chinese textbooks appear to teach that everything the Chinese government has done has been correct," Machimura said on a TV Asahi talk show. "There is a tendency toward this in any country, but the Chinese textbooks are extreme in they way they uniformly convey the 'our country is correct' perspective."