Japan’s finance minister, Taro Aso, was roundly denounced today after he said that Japan should take a cue from the Nazis in changing the country’s constitution. His aides say the remarks were taken out of context and that he didn’t mean to praise Nazi Germany but, well, see for yourself: “Germany’s Weimar Constitution was changed before anyone noticed. It was changed before anyone was aware. Why don’t we learn from that technique.” He was speaking at an event organized by the Japan Institute for National Fundamentals, a conservative think tank that came under fire recently for denying that Japanese soldiers forcibly recruited “comfort women” during WWII. Japan’s nationalist leadership is no stranger to controversy. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants to revise Japan’s pacifist constitution, and Aso and others in his conservative, hawkish government share this goal. Aso himself has been caught saying some pretty weird things: Japan should let its elderly citizens die instead of using expensive taxpayer-funded life-support systems, and “a good country is a country where rich Jews would want to live.” What does that mean?
Posted on: Wed, 31 Jul 2013 22:38:18 +0000
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