More than 6,000 Japanese held a rally Saturday in Tokyo, voicing objection to a controversial history textbook and an envisaged move to revise the current education law.

Participants from hundreds of civilian groups gathered at the Yoyogi Park in central Tokyo, calling to boycott the textbook widely criticized at home and abroad for glorifying Japan's colonial rule and war-time ravage in Asia.

"The resentment against Japan seething in China and South Korea stems from the education ministry's approving the textbook which glosses over Japan's invasive war and from Prime Minister ( Junichiro) Koizumi's repeated visit to the Yasukuni Shrine enshrining those responsible for the war," said Yoichi Komori, a professor of the Tokyo University. He called on the crowd to do their best to prevent the book from adoption in middle schools.

The textbook compiled by a group of right-wing editors cleared Japan's education department in April.

Japan also is moving toward revising its pacifist constitution and education law, a campaign raising concerns for nationalism.

"The revision of the constitution would clear the way for Japan to wage war, and the revision of the education law would turn students into fighters, " lower house lawmaker Yikuko Yishii said at the gathering.

A high school student, whose parents did not favor her coming, said, "The textbook calls Japan's aggression a war of liberation. It's totally wrong. The Japanese government has never sincerely felt regret for the history of invasion."