This study analyzed the ideas about historical significance of students of an overseas Japanese school. This research conducted qualitative, semi-structured interviews with 15 students. Most of the students identified not with the country they lived in but with Japan. Moreover, they rarely saw the historical events related to the country they lived in as historically significant. Their selection and thinking were similar to those of the students in Japan. This study suggests that previous proposals of social studies education in Japan that tried to include inquiry stance, excluding the identity stance, may not work. Rather, this study suggests that history education should actively deal with history related to identity and that other stances such as analytic stance should be adopted.