The Saitama Prefectural Government has provided local public elementary and junior high schools with a central government document lifting a ban on field trips to Yasukuni Shrine, the head of the prefectural board of education said.
"Measures need to be taken to avoid misunderstandings," Shiro Takahashi told a prefectural assembly session Friday, saying some school officials might think they cannot organize trips to the contentious shrine.
Takahashi said high schools in Saitama Prefecture would also be made aware of the central government document.
The Shinto shrine in central Tokyo honors convicted war criminals alongside the war dead who fought in the Japanese military.
The Saitama Prefectural Government's education bureau distributed a set of materials from the education ministry related to new school curriculum guidelines, including the document in question, in July.
The central government issued the document in May to declare void the 1949 government instruction to ban public schools from organizing trips to Yasukuni. The document was endorsed by the Cabinet.
"It is permissible for schoolchildren to visit Yasukuni Shrine to learn about Japanese history and culture as part of school education," the document says.
According to the central government's document, the vice education minister subsequently issued an instruction prohibiting public schools from sending their students on school excursions to the shrine or other religious places for the purpose of worshipping.