Hundreds of people on Thursday filed lawsuits against leading prime ministerial candidate Shinzo Abe, demanding compensation and a public apology over his alleged support of nationalist history textbooks, plaintiffs said.

A group of 275 people, mostly Japanese citizens in southwestern Ehime Prefecture but also including 56 South Koreans and 37 Chinese, filed one of the two lawsuits at the Matsuyama District Court, accusing Abe of taking a leading role in pressuring a government textbook panel into approving the nationalist books, plaintiff Kazuie Nishihara said.

The plaintiffs also accuse Abe of using political pressure on local education boards in and around Tokyo and Ehime to adopt use of the texts in their school districts. They demand Abe, as well as Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and their ruling Liberal Democratic Party, pay 1,000 yen (US$8.5) in compensation for their mental anguish.

"Mr. Abe illegally made political influence over the textbook adoption," Nishihara said. "His persistent effort to spread his ultra-nationalistic view in school education is extremely regrettable."

Plaintiffs also accuse Abe of leading a group of young lawmakers to support authors and a publisher of the textbooks "that distort and justify Japan's wartime actions," he said.

Abe, the nationalist leading this month's race for the premiership, has long been a supporter of history textbooks that critics accuse of whitewashing Japanese wartime atrocities.

He is widely seen as the favorite to win the Sept. 20 election for a new president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. The party president is virtually assured of becoming prime minister because of the party dominance in the parliament.

The history and civics textbooks, both published by Fusosha Ltd. and approved by the Education Ministry last year, are currently in use at a small number of school districts, mostly in Tokyo and Ehime, after adoption by local education boards.

The texts have become a source of friction between Japan and its neighbors China and South Korea, which suffered Japanese wartime aggression in most of the first half of 1900s.

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