Civic groups opposing a contentious revisionist history textbook on Thursday hailed the result of the publisher's recent survey, as well as their own, that less than 1 percent of the nation's junior high schools are likely to use the book from next April.
The groups also said they will continue working to prevent the text by Fusosha Publishing Inc., which they claim glosses over Japan's wartime aggression, from gaining any more recognition by schools and will campaign to improve descriptions in other history textbooks.
"I think our grassroots campaign against the textbook won the result," said Yoshifumi Tawara, secretary general of Children and Textbooks Japan Network 21.