"Learning from the Nazis? How the Japanese constitution is being quietly undermined."

In summer 2013, Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso suggested that Japan should learn methods of constitutional revision from the Nazis: "Let's do [the revision of the constitution] quietly, the way the Nazis did it. The Weimar constitution was replaced by the Nazi constitution without anyone even noticing. Why don't we learn from the tactics of the Nazis?" This paper analyzes the background of the statement and the underlying ideology of Japan's political class.