Digital Textbooks Approved for Official Use; Concerns Remain About Potential ‘Shallow Reading’

The Yomiuri Shimbun

20:00 JST, September 25, 2025

An education ministry council working group looking into the proliferation of digital textbooks on Wednesday approved a summary of their deliberations on official use of these materials. If digital textbooks are treated as equivalent to paper ones, they will become subject to official certification and mandatory use in classes.

The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry will subsequently issue guidelines on their adoption by grade and subject, taking into consideration children’s developmental stages. The ministry aims to amend the relevant laws during next year’s ordinary Diet session.

The summary states that digital textbooks should be recognized as official textbooks and be subject to certification and free distribution. It incorporates the view that it would be desirable to enable the use of new digital textbooks starting in the 2030 academic year, coinciding with the implementation of the next set of new curriculum guidelines.

It also calls for the creation of guidelines specifying which grades digital textbooks are to be used in.

It envisions textbooks coming in three formats: paper; digital; and hybrids combining paper and digital materials. Education boards and other entities will select the formats they will use. Hybrid textbooks will feature QR codes printed on paper that students will scan with learning devices to access online digital materials as part of the textbook. Learning content will be divided between paper and digital materials which together will form a single complete textbook.

Concerns exist regarding digital textbooks, including that they may hinder concentration and lead to “shallow reading” like skimming or scanning. For lower elementary grades, in particular, the high volume of information in digital formats is seen as likely to place a greater cognitive processing load on students.