Group Warns Against Using E-Textbooks as Official Textbooks for Schools in Japan

The Yomiuri Shimbun

17:33 JST, March 31, 2026

A group of cultural figures and education specialists released a booklet on Monday warning against the use of digital textbooks.

The booklet’s title can be translated as, “Redefining e-textbooks — children’s thinking skills in danger.”

The group is headed by novelist Jiro Asada.

The government is planning to submit to the Diet during the current session a bill related to making e-textbooks official textbooks at schools.

The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry will draw up guidelines on related matters, such as textbook editing, and will determine which grades and subjects will use the e-textbooks.

In the booklet, 14 members expressed their concerns about e-textbooks.

“It is feared that children’s linguistic skills and ability to think may deteriorate, and their academic ability may decline,” University of Tokyo Prof. Kuniyoshi Sakai, a specialist in neuroscience of language, wrote in the booklet.

Toshikazu Yamaguchi, the president of The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings who serves as the secretary general of the panel, wrote: “The introduction of e-textbooks has been moving forward as if it is a foregone conclusion. As a result of the process moving forward without verification, it remains impossible to paint a vision about the best possible combination of print and digital textbooks.”

Yamaguchi is also the chairman of the Characters Culture Promotion Organization, of which the panel is part.

“Once a wrong reform is made in education, recovering is difficult, and it is children who have to deal with the damage that has been done,” Yamaguchi added. “We’d like to start a national debate before the guidelines are drawn up.”