TOKYO, (Xinhuanet) -- A group of eminent Japanese historians said a recently approved history textbook which drew criticism from Japan's neighboring countries contains at least 56 mistakes, a leading Japanese newspaper reported Friday.

The historians, from Japan's 21 academic societies, sent a list of the errors to municipal boards of education across Japan last week, the Asahi Shimbun said.

"We are afraid the quality of history teaching in Japan's schools will be ruined by using this textbook," the historians said in a statement.

The textbook, compiled with junior high schools in mind by members of the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform trying to distort history and justify Japan's past aggression against its neighboring countries, was approved by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology this spring despite strong opposition from Japan's Asian neighbors.

Following the government's approval, the textbook was published by Fuso-sha in Tokyo, and now appears in book stores.

"We found intentional distortions, as well as simple mistakes, in the textbook," professor Masaharu Ebara of the University of Tokyo told a press conference Tuesday.

Ebsara, a senior member of the Historical Science Society of Japan, one of the 21 societies, said even more mistakes have cropped up since the boards of education were first informed on June 11.

Meanwhile, another university professor in the group said there were more than 20 errors in the textbook's ancient history section alone.

"We doubt if this is worthy of being called a textbook. We should think about the negative effects the adoption of this textbook can be expected to have on students," the professor said.