Chinese and Korean translations of parts of eight Japanese junior high school history textbooks dealing with modern history appeared on the Foreign Ministry's Web site Wednesday.

The translations are aimed "at promoting understanding by foreign countries of the real picture of Japan's history textbooks and history education by introducing in translation what is actually written in (Japan's) junior high school textbooks," the ministry said in a statement.

The first stage of the translation, conducted by a private company commissioned by the ministry, includes sections that mainly concern Japan's colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula and its invasion and occupation of China, according to Tomohiko Taniguchi, a Foreign Ministry deputy press secretary.

The English translations will be available in the next few days, and the ministry plans to have the remaining texts on modern history translated and posted on the Internet by March, he said.

Differing views of wartime history have been one reason behind Japan's long-standing disputes with China and South Korea, which suffered under Japanese aggression.

The Japanese government approved the latest batch of textbooks on April 5. Schools are allowed to begin using them next April.

China and South Korea, as well as critics in Japan, argue that some of the textbooks sanitize Japan's militarist past, especially such sensitive issues as the wartime sex slaves referred to as "comfort women," and the 1937 Nanjing Massacre.

The textbook dispute erupted in mass anti-Japanese rallies throughout China after the contentious texts were approved.

The translations will also be accessibleon the translator company's Web site at www.je-kaleidoscope.jp