Mr. Taro Aso, the vice prime minister, has caused a dispute. In a symposium in Tokyo on July 29, he referred to the Nazis during declaring to the necessity of revision of the constitution.
News.com.au: Japanese Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso says government can learn from Nazi's example
The Diplomat: Taro Aso on Japanese Constitutional Reform: Learn from the Nazis
Several news sites expressed the comment of Mr. Aso as below: “The German Weimar Constitution changed, without being noticed, to the Nazi German constitution. Why don’t we learn from their tactics?”
Indeed, it is quite a questionable statement, if you take him at his word. However, a politician must not be willing to introduce the Nazis for the purpose of admiration of it.
The fact is that Asahi Shinbun published the full text of the statement of Mr. Aso in detail.
Asahi Shinbun: the statement around the revision of the constitution in detail (in Japanese)
He referred to the Nazis at the beginning. He said, “Some people refer to two-third (of the diet members have to agree with the revision of the constitution). But, Hitler rose and won the majority from the democracy in Germany.”
He seemed to offer an example of a failure of democracy with Nazis. Based on this part, it is clear what we should learn from it.
Every statement has its own context. If picked up, a piece of comments can be interpreted in any way. It is quite dangerous.
On the other hand, it is certain that this speech was hard to understand. Even if it is possible that Asahi Shinbun did not dictate his statement exactly, Mr. Aso is also infamous as a person who often makes a slip of the tongue. I do not know the fact, for I did not listen to his speech directly.
Some people claim it was his silly joke. If so, is it an extremely imprudent behavior? It is not the so simple problem. Of course I shall not mimic the Nazis. However, we have to analyze the theory of the Nazis, for the purpose of the real democracy. Current situation at which a mention to the Nazis is deemed as a taboo is a little questionable, I think.
After all, Mr. Aso retracted his remark today. He said that he had no intention to admire the Nazis at all and that it was quite sorry that his comment had been misunderstood.
The Mainichi: Aso retracts remark citing Nazis as example for constitution change
I am Japanese native speaker, however, for me it is still quite tough to understand what Mr Aso wanted to say. I think it was inappropriate comment, anyway. He must use another expression.
ReplyDeletePeet