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Japanese and South Korean researchers remain split on their views of modern history between the two countries as they released a second report on their joint investigations on Tuesday.

A panel for Japan-South Korea joint history research, which was set up following a row over descriptions in Japanese history textbooks in 2001, released a report on Tuesday from its second-stage research that discussed textbooks in both countries since June 2007.

The report comprises chapters on ancient, medieval and modern history as well as on textbooks, with articles and critical notes penned by panel members from both countries.

Panel members were, however, sharply divided over the descriptions of comfort women and other issues in textbooks as they discussed them in a newly established subcommittee, following heated debate over modern history and other issues during the first-stage research.

Some panel members even said that the research was detrimental to national interests, casting a shadow over the future of the joint research at the government level.

In the latest report, South Korean researchers pointed out that descriptions of comfort women, which had appeared in all the seven history textbooks used in Japan's junior high schools in 1996, dwindled to just two textbooks in 2005. They also noted that explanations about the forcible nature of comfort women have vanished, saying reference to the issue in textbooks "has steadily been downscaled." They attributed the reason for the cutback to "growing conservatism in Japan's political and social climate."

Japanese researchers, meanwhile, refuted by saying, "South Korea mixes up comfort women with female volunteer corps, the latter of which were limited to mobilization to munitions factories. Teachers are also at odds over whether to teach juveniles the difficult issues of 'battlefield and sex' at schools."

Japanese experts also criticized the definition of the term "nittei" (short for Japanese Imperialism), which often appears in South Korean textbooks, as "ambiguous" and that there is no reference in them to Japan's pacifist Constitution after the war. "The Constitution is an integral element for understanding post-war Japan," said the experts, demanding it be mentioned in South Korean textbooks.

Japanese experts also requested the 1995 statement by then Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, which clearly professed Japan's reflection on and an apology over its colonial rule and aggressions in Asian countries during the war, be included in South Korean textbooks, along with the words by Emperor Showa and Emperor Akihito over their remorse for the war.

The panel was set up after the South Korean government protested over the Japanese Education Ministry's approval of a junior high school history textbook compiled by a group called "Atarashii Rekishi Kyokasho wo Tsukurukai" (Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform) in 2001, which aggravated Japan-South Korea relations. In a bid to settle the gridlock, then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung agreed to launch joint history research during a summit meeting in October the same year.