In this paper, I aimed to clarify the features of the descriptions of Japan in Korean geography textbooks. Japan and Korea share a long historical relationship. The descriptions of Japan in Korean high school geography textbooks are likely to be closely related to the changes in the social backgrounds. I will also explore the social backgrounds along with the transformation of the descriptions of
... [Show full abstract] Japan in Korean high school geography textbooks throughout this paper. I analyzed the descriptions of Japan in Korean high school geography textbooks that were used from 1946 to the 2000s from the perspectives of quantity and content. As for the quantitative transformation of descriptions of Japan in the geography textbooks, the descriptions of Japan accounted for a nearly constant 3–5% proportion of each of the textbooks, and this proportion rose slightly since the mid-2000s. In addition, it was also found that the volume of the descriptions concerning the industrial economy of Japan were maintained as a large proportion from 1946 to the 2000s. On the other hand, the descriptive transformation in terms of the content suggests that descriptions about the war always appeared in the textbooks, no matter whether emotional elements were contained, and that descriptions of the industrial economy of Japan remained the central part of the overall descriptions.
