Japan - a textbook case

Is it fair that Japan receives so much criticism for producing school history books that gloss over the nastiest incidents in it's history ? - just like other countries do in fact. But maybe Japan and it's history are not like other countries. It is possible to defend Japan's efforts to record it's history fairly, as being no better or worse than the efforts of other states like Italy, the US and the UK, more from Foreign Policy..., but this may miss the point, which is that Japans crimes seem to it's neighbours to be so monstrous as to need to meet the 'gold standard of contrition' of states like Germany. Without doing so Japan will always be vulnerable to criticism and recent moves suggest the government knows this, e.g. by posting a clearer statement of it's position on the web, more from Japan Today..., but translating it would have been a good idea.