Education Ministry Eyes Using Digital Textbooks as Official Schoolbooks; Giving Boards of Education Choice of Digital Vs. Paper

The Yomiuri Shimbun

21:00 JST, January 19, 2025

The education ministry is considering giving digital textbooks, which are currently used as substitute teaching materials for paper textbooks, an official status to be used as school textbooks, according to sources. The ministry is also aiming to introduce a new system to allow individual boards of education to choose from either paper or digital textbooks, the sources said.

The move is likely to spark debate as it would drastically transform what form textbooks — the foundation of the country’s school education system — should take.

The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry is expected to present the points at issue, including such proposals, to a working group of the Central Council for Education at a meeting scheduled for Tuesday.

Digital textbooks are the digitized version of paper textbooks and have the same content as in the paper textbooks. Students can view digitized content on terminals provided to each of them.

The ministry plans to present two major points at issue to the working group. First, calling for a review of the status of digital textbooks from substitute teaching materials to official school textbooks. They will also become subject to the government screening of school textbooks and free distribution. Secondly, individual boards of education will choose from either paper or digital textbooks.

Based on discussions at the working group, the education ministry plans to compile an interim report as early as next month.

Under the School Education Law, paper textbooks are defined as official school textbooks and digital ones as teaching materials that can be used “in place of the textbooks.” If digital ones become authorized as official textbooks, it will become possible for students to completely study with digital textbooks without using their paper counterparts. Digital textbooks will also become subject to the government screening of school textbooks for their accuracy and appropriateness and be provided for free to students under compulsory education.

At public schools, textbooks are chosen by the board of education in the local government that set up the schools. Once the selective system is introduced, local governments will determine what and which form of textbooks to be used at schools and distribute them.

To start using digital textbooks as official schoolbooks, it will be necessary to revise the School Education Law. The education ministry aims to revise the law by fiscal 2026 and begin using digital textbooks from fiscal 2030, when schools begin offering classes based on the next national curriculum standards.

However, some experts are wary of expanding the use of digital textbooks. Studies show a decrease in memory retention with digital teaching materials compared with paper materials. Others express concern for other negative effects, such as the worsening of students’ eyesight.

“It is premature to give digital textbooks an official textbook status at this point when it has not been verified whether they are at least as good as paper textbooks,” said Prof. Kuniyoshi Sakai of the University of Tokyo, who is an expert on the neuroscience of language. “As the step may have a serious impact on children’s academic ability, the education ministry should consider this carefully.”