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Abbott's challenge in Asia says that

Abe's Deputy Prime Minister, Taro Aso, suggested a few weeks ago that Japan should learn from the example of Nazi Germany in implementing a constitutional revision with limited public debate.

This comment passed virtually unnoticed in the Australian media. A European leader guilty of such revisionism would be immediately and universally condemned - and would certainly be forced to resign.

Was Aso saying that the Nazi change in the constitution was a good thing that Japan should emulate? Or is he being quoted out of context?

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Did Taro Aso say that Japan should emulate the Nazis in amending the constitution?

Yes he did (if we believe the BBC, CNN, Xinhua and several newspapers). He later retracted his comments.

Mr Aso said on Monday Japan could "learn the technique" Nazi Germany used to change the Weimar constitution.

BBC

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You posit two questions: one in the title, and the other in the text. They are completely different questions. But to your intention or not, that may mislead readers to the impression that they are the same question.

  • Did Taro Aso say that Japan should emulate the Nazis in amending the constitution?

    Yes, he did. He said that we can learn from the technique that Nazi used to gain popularity from the German people to change the constitution. (There is no doubt that the way Hitler and Goebbels made their speech was very effective in gaining people's attention and sympathy.)

  • Was Aso saying that the Nazi change in the constitution was a good thing that Japan should emulate?

    No, he did not say that the particular change made to the German constitution by Nazi was good (although the major goal of The Liberal Democratic Party (where Aso belongs) from the time of its establishment has been to change Japan's constitution).

Although Aso is said, according to Nonaka Hiromu, to have made a discriminative comment regarding a particular social class in Japan, there is no particular mentioning that he is a supporter of Nazi's policy.

Edit Since there was a request for a source citation, here you go for the whole transcription: http://www.asahi.com/politics/update/0801/TKY201307310772.html

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  • For saying that you are confused, this is one of the things that I have in mind: It came to my attention that you claimed in another stackexchange site that I said that a non-Japanese cannot learn Japanese. I never said that. That must be your misinterpretation of something else that I said. I am not interested in that website any more, but that pops up on Google search with a certain type of query.
    – sawa
    Oct 13 '13 at 1:36
  • Why is this downvoted? It includes a link to a more direct information than RedGrittyBrick's answer, and is more detailed. Downvoter Please explain what is wrong.
    – sawa
    Oct 13 '13 at 16:22
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    This is downvoted because the beginning of it reads like a personal attack.
    – Christian
    Oct 13 '13 at 17:09
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    That should not be the reason for downvote. If one feels offended, then they should report to the moderator. Anyway, I removed the part that may be taken as offensive. But someone added an upvote to Christian's comment even after that.
    – sawa
    Oct 14 '13 at 20:52

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