Japan has approved a controversial history textbook for use by teenage students, but anger is still simmering around the region and China has summoned the Japanese ambassador in Beijing to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to discuss the book.

The book stands accused of whitewashing Japan's wartime record, and while the Japanese government's screening committee insisted on more than 100 changes to the book's text, many controversial passages remained. "The textbook intentionally blurs the nature of the aggressive war launched by the Japanese invaders and fails to reflect on the tragedies perpetrated on the Asian people by Japanese militarists," said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao.