Law would label ‘East Sea’ in Virginia textbooks

[unhappycamper]

http://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=2984467

Law would label ‘East Sea’ in Virginia textbooks

A bill requiring new school textbooks to simultaneously refer to the body of water between Korea and Japan as the “East Sea” and the “Sea of Japan” was approved on Monday by an education panel in the Virginia House of Delegates, despite fierce lobbying efforts by the Japanese government to halt it.

In an 18 to 3 vote, the panel passed the bill, which was actively supported by the Korean-American community in the U.S. state.

Its passage comes in spite of the Japanese Embassy’s desperate attempts to stymie the legislation. In December, the embassy hired a team of lobbyists from?McGuireWoods, a leading lobbying firm in Richmond, signing a contract reportedly worth $75,000 to maintain the use of the “Sea of Japan” designation in textbooks.

~snip~

McAuliffe, known to be close to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, pledged during his campaign that he would make sure textbooks used both names to refer to the East Sea. The governor’s spokesman affirmed recently that McAuliffe would sign the bill into law if it passed the legislature this week.