Education minister Nariaki Nakayama said Tuesday educational guidelines should be revised to refer to an island in the Sea of Japan disputed with South Korea and a group of islands in the East China Sea disputed with China.

''The current educational guidelines do not say (the disputed islands) are Japan's territories. We need to clearly refer to our claim in the next revision of the guidelines,'' Nakayama, minister of education, culture, sports, science and technology, said at a House of Councillors committee session.

He said the guidelines should describe the exact scope of Japan's territory.

His remarks could fuel anger in Japan's two neighboring countries, especially South Korea, following a Japanese prefectural government's recent establishment of a commemorative day for the island disputed with South Korea. The bilateral relationship between Japan and South Korea has turned sour due to the local assembly's move.

The South Korean-administered island is called Takeshima in Japanese and Tokto in Korean.

Nakayama was also referring to the some uninhabited islands in the East China Sea controlled by Japan but also claimed by China and Taiwan. They are known in Japan as the Senkaku Islands, in China as Diaoyu and in Taiwan as Tiaoyutai.

Educational guidelines serve as basis for educational content in classes and in textbooks.

Nakayama made the remarks as China and South Korea have been closely watching how the Japanese government screens a nationalistic history textbook for junior high schools, which critics describe as inaccurate and biased.

Many South Korean newspapers have criticized the textbook for trying to distort Japan's colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945. The book has yet to be published.

The textbook, edited by the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform, will be screened next month to decide whether it can be used in the academic year beginning in April 2006.

Nakayama told the Education, Culture and Science Committee session that educational guidelines should also fully describe the bilateral dispute over Russian-held islands off Hokkaido.

''The guidelines should be revised so that textbooks clearly mention that the territories have been unlawfully occupied (by Russia), they are integral part of Japan and that the two governments are currently negotiating over the issue,'' Nakayama said.

The current guidelines refer to the dispute without going into detail.

Japan and Russia have not signed a peace treaty after World War II because of the dispute over the islands of Etorofu, Kunashiri and Shikotan as well as the Habomai islet group. The Soviet Union took control of the islands at the end of the war.

Nakayama said he wants the Central Council for Education to promote discussion on education guidelines to enable the revisions.