雑談日記（徒然なるままに、。）

　世界中の警戒感を惹起し、アジア近隣諸国の疑いの目、また日本国内でもかなりの注視を集めて、安倍自民ナチス政権の暴走にかなりのブレーキがかかったと思います。これはアホウ太郎のお陰、功績かもしれません（笑）海外の反響を報じる国内記事とその海外反響記事を集めました。

麻生副総理:ナチス発言、官邸火消しも後手…政権に痛手
毎日新聞　2013年08月01日　20時50分（最終更新　08月01日　22時36分）
http://mainichi.jp/select/news/20130802k0000m010065000c.html

麻生太郎副総理兼財務相＝藤井太郎撮影

　麻生太郎副総理兼財務相は１日、憲法改正に関連しドイツのナチス政権を引き合いに「あの手口、学んだらどうかね」と講演で述べたことについて「誤解を招く結果となった」として撤回した。批判が海外に広がり首相官邸は火消しに動いたが、後手に回った感は否めない。菅義偉官房長官は１日の記者会見で「（麻生氏の）辞任にはあたらない」と強調したが、野党は徹底追及の構えで、安倍政権にとって痛手となった。

　菅氏は会見で「安倍内閣としてナチス政権を肯定的にとらえることは断じてない。わが国は戦後一貫して、平和と人権を徹底して擁護する社会を築き上げ、国際社会に貢献してきた」と沈静化に努めた。

　首相官邸は当初、「麻生副総理が答えるべきこと」（菅氏）と静観していたが、米国のユダヤ系人権団体「サイモン・ウィーゼンタール・センター」が抗議声明を出し、中国、韓国両政府も批判のコメントを発表したことから、動かざるを得なくなった。菅氏は７月３１日、福岡県内にいた麻生氏に電話で「誤解を受ける状況になっている」と対応を促し、菅氏から報告を受けた安倍晋三首相も「（撤回は）早い方がいい」と語った。

　参院選での自民党大勝を受け、首相が７月２３日の閣僚懇談会で、「これから引き締めて頑張っていこう」と指示した直後の麻生氏の発言。首相には、第１次安倍内閣で閣僚の不祥事が相次ぎ、政権が失速した苦い経験もある。自民党幹部は「言っていいことと悪いことがある」と不快感を示し、公明党の山口那津男代表も１日の会見で、「枢要な立場にある政治家は発言に重々配慮することが重要だ」と苦言を呈した。

　麻生氏は発言を撤回したコメントで「喧騒（けんそう）に紛れて十分な国民的理解及び議論のないまま進んでしまったあしき例として挙げた」と釈明したが、「手口を学んだら」という発言と「あしき例」は矛盾しており、国際的な理解が得られる保証はない。韓国外交筋は「波紋が広がったので撤回したのだろうが、どこにも通じない発言だ」と指摘した。

http://mainichi.jp/select/news/20130802k0000m010065000c2.html
　野党は一斉に反発している。民主党の海江田万里代表は１日の党役員会で、「発言を撤回して済む問題ではない。首相の任命責任を厳しく追及したい」と強調。共産党の志位和夫委員長は会見で「ナチス独裁政権の誕生とワイマール憲法の機能停止は無法な暴力と弾圧の嵐の中で強行された。民主主義否定の暴論」と厳しく批判した。日本維新の会の小沢鋭仁国対委員長は１日、自民党の鴨下一郎国対委員長に国会で麻生氏に説明させるよう求めた。【鈴木美穂、光田宗義】

麻生氏ナチス釈明　独で批判次々　「そんな理解はしない」
2013年8月3日 夕刊
http://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/article/world/news/CK2013080302000238.html

　【ベルリン＝宮本隆彦】麻生太郎副総理兼財務相が改憲問題をめぐる発言で、戦前ドイツのナチス政権を悪い例としてあげたと釈明したことを受け、独紙フランクフルター・アルゲマイネは二日「聞いた人はそんな理解はしないだろう」と批判的に報じた。

　記事は「ただの『誤解』だ」との見出し付きで麻生氏の釈明を引用。発言の詳細や経緯に加え、安倍政権が改憲を目指している状況や、韓国や中国が反発した事情も伝えた。

　フンボルト大で現代史を研究するマルティン・ザーブロ教授（５９）は本紙の取材に「ヒトラーは反対する共産党を迫害しながら自身に権力を集中させる全権委任法を成立させた」と説明。「ワイマール憲法がいつの間にか変わっていた」とする麻生氏の発言は誤りだと指摘した。

　その上で「独裁の手口から学びたいとの欲求は、他人の人権を否定し、自らが民主政治に参加する資格をも失わせる」と批判した。

　ドイツでは、ナチスがユダヤ人大量虐殺を実行した反省から、ナチスを賛美する言動が刑法で禁じられている。社会もナチスを肯定的に扱うことを許さない。昨夏のバイロイト音楽祭では、出演予定のロシア人歌手が過去にナチスの象徴である「かぎ十字」の入れ墨をしていたことが発覚し、直前に降板した。

Japan Und dann war alles nur ein „Missverständnis“
http://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/ausland/asien/japan-und-dann-war-alles-nur-ein-missverstaendnis-12315619.html

01.08.2013 ·  Der japanische Finanzminister nannte in einer Rede die Nationalsozialisten als Vorbilder für eine gelungene Verfassungsreform. Die Empörung, die Taro Aso entgegenschlug, lässt ihn jetzt zurückzucken.

Von Carsten Germis, Tokio


© The Asahi Shimbun via Getty Imag
Autsch: Taro Aso zieht seinen gewagten historischen Vergleich zurück.

Japans stellvertretender Regierungschef hat sich überraschende politische Lehrmeister gesucht: die deutschen Nationalsozialisten. Die „Tokio Shinbun“, eine Tageszeitung in der japanischen Hauptstadt, hat jetzt an den Tag gebracht, dass Finanzminister Taro Aso ausgerechnet die Nazis und ihre politische Taktik bei der japanischen Verfassungsreform kopieren möchte. Regierungschef Shinzo Abe, dessen Pläne, Japans Grundgesetz umzuschreiben, auch im eigenen Land nicht auf ungeteilte Zustimmung stoßen, und die Regierung sollten sich doch die Nationalsozialisten von 1933 zum Vorbild nehmen, erklärte Aso auf einem Seminar zu Wochenbeginn.

„Die deutsche Weimarer Verfassung wurde unbemerkt, ohne dass es jemandem auffiel, durch die Verfassung der Nazis ersetzt“, sagte er. „Warum lernen wir nicht von dieser Taktik?“ Abe und Aso, beide glühende Nationalisten, streben an, die japanische Nachkriegsverfassung radikal zu ändern. Dazu wollen sie nicht nur das Pazifismusgebot der Verfassung streichen. Artikel neun verbietet es Japan, eigene Streitkräfte zu unterhalten. Diese kategorische Bestimmung wird seit langem dadurch umgangen, dass das Land über bewaffnete „Selbstverteidigungskräfte“ verfügt.Auch die Garantie der Grundrechte in Artikel 97 der Verfassung ist Abe, Aso und den Nationalisten in ihrer Partei suspekt. Der Verfassungsentwurf der regierenden Liberaldemokratischen Partei (LDP) sieht die ersatzlose Streichung dieses Artikels vor. Obrigkeitsstaat statt Menschenrechte, das ist der Geist, den diese Pläne für eine neue japanische Verfassung atmen.

Asos Lehrstunde, in der er die Nationalsozialisten und ihr Ermächtigungsgesetz vom März 1933 zum Vorbild für Japan erklärte, wird vor diesem Hintergrund noch erschreckender. Aso ist nicht nur Finanzminister, sondern auch stellvertretender Regierungschef. Er spielte mit seiner Bemerkung darauf an, dass sich in Teilen der japanischen Öffentlichkeit und Medien Widerstand gegen die Bestrebungen der Regierung zeigt, wieder einen Obrigkeitsstaat alter Prägung einzuführen. Die Medien hätten viel Lärm um die Verfassungspläne gemacht, sagte Aso jetzt. „Ich möchte nicht, dass die Menschen über die Verfassungsänderung in Aufregung diskutieren.“ Das Echo in den ostasiatischen Nachbarländern China und Südkorea, die ohnehin ein Erstarken des japanischen Nationalismus unter der Regierung Abe befürchten, fiel entsprechend aus. Solche Bemerkungen verletzten Menschen, die unter dem japanischen Aggressionskrieg in den dreißiger und vierziger Jahren gelitten hätten, hieß es in Südkorea.
Kaum Rücktrittsforderungen in Land

Das Simon-Wiesenthal-Zentrum in Los Angeles forderte Aso umgehend auf, seine Bemerkungen zu erklären. „Was für ,Techniken‘ der Nazi-Herrschaft sind es wert, gelernt zu werden - wie man heimlich eine Demokratie kaputtmacht?“ Selbst die japanische Regierung distanzierte sich von ihrem Mitglied. Aso, der in der Vergangenheit immer wieder durch rassistische oder provozierende Aussagen aufgefallen war, versuchte am Donnerstag, der wachsenden Kritik den Wind aus den Segeln zu nehmen. Das sei doch alles nur ein „Missverständnis“, sagte er - auch wenn seine Wortwahl eigentlich wenig Raum für Missverständnisse gelassen hatte.

„Ich denke, es ist wichtig, dass wir über die Revision unserer Verfassung in Ruhe beraten“, sagte Aso am Donnerstag. „Um dieses zu betonen, habe ich die Revision der Weimarer Verfassung durch das Nazi-Regime als negatives Beispiel erwähnt.“ Die Teilnehmer des Seminars, denen Aso am Montag in einem Hotel in Tokio seine Lehrstunde in Sachen Nationalsozialismus erteilt hatte, haben diese „negative“ Einstellung des stellvertretenden japanischen Regierungschefs beim Zuhören vermutlich nicht so verstanden.

Rücktrittsforderungen erhob am Donnerstag nur ein Vertreter der kleinen sozialdemokratischen Opposition. Dabei hatte die jetzt mit großer Mehrheit regierende LDP als Oppositionspartei Minister der Vorgängerregierung mit der Mehrheit der Opposition im Oberhaus, der zweiten Kammer des Parlaments, schon wegen viel harmloserer „Fehlbemerkungen“ zum Rücktritt gezwungen. Zwar zeigten am Donnerstag auf den Straßen der japanischen Hauptstadt auch viele Bürger ihre Empörung - „dumm, untragbar“ waren noch die milderen Vorwürfe. Das politische Tokio zeigte sich aber unbeeindruckt. Stellungnahmen von Regierungschef Abe gab es zunächst nicht.

Aso ist bekannt für abfällige und unbedachte Bemerkungen. Erst Anfang des Jahres hatte er für Empörung gesorgt, als er im Fall einer Krankheit, alten Menschen nahelegte, besser zu sterben, als dem Gesundheitssystem Kosten zu verursachen.

Japan’s Finance Minister Retracts Statement on Nazis
By MARTIN FACKLER
Published: August 1, 2013
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/02/world/asia/japans-finance-minister-retracts-statement-on-nazis.html?_r=0

TOKYO — Japan’s finance minister on Thursday publicly retracted comments he made this week that appeared to call on Japan’s current conservative government to emulate Hitler’s takeover of prewar Germany. The gaffe underscored the potential for disputes over Japan’s own wartime history to derail its popular prime minister, Shinzo Abe.

Toru Yamanaka/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Taro Aso, the finance minister, said his remarks were intended to start a debate on whether to change Japan’s Constitution.


The finance minister, Taro Aso, insisted that his comments on Monday, in which he seemed to say that Japan should learn how the Nazi party quietly rewrote Germany’s Constitution, were taken out of context. Faced with growing criticism in Japan and abroad, he countered that he had never meant to praise the Nazis. He said he had hoped to prompt debate in Japan over whether to change its current pacifist Constitution to allow a full-fledged military, as many conservatives now seek.

Still, the uproar over the comments by Mr. Aso, an outspoken nationalist who is also known for slips of the tongue, seemed to confirm the fears of some Japanese and other Asians that members of Mr. Abe’s government want to revise current views of World War II to present Imperial Japan, an ally of Nazi Germany, in a more positive light. The gaffe was also the latest in a string of recent events, including nationalistic displays by South Korean and Japanese fans at a soccer game, that have raised concerns that disagreements over interpreting the war could isolate Japan from the rest of Asia, where there are still bitter memories of Japan’s early 20th-century empire building.

The comments come at a time when there has been intense attention on where Mr. Abe, who has long been a leading figure on Japan’s far right, might lead his long-rudderless nation after his governing Liberal Democratic Party’s decisive victory in upper house elections last month. Critics have speculated that he may adopt a nationalistic agenda like the one he pursued during his first term as prime minister seven years ago, when he drew outrage in South Korea and even the United States for denying that Koreans and women from other conquered nations had been forced to serve as prostitutes for Japanese soldiers during the war.

However, Mr. Abe has so far appeared to steer clear of such historical controversies, focusing his second term on policies to revive Japan’s stagnant economy. The question, analysts say, is whether Mr. Abe and members of his government, who have spoken of restoring not only Japan’s economy but also its pride, can keep adhering to the politically successful moderate line.

“Mr. Abe knows that with one wrong word he can undo all that he has accomplished,” said Harumi Arima, an independent political commentator. “The stock market is up, and so are his approval ratings, so he is being very careful not to say the wrong things that bring this all crashing down again.”

Mr. Arima said that the Liberal Democrats had learned from the missteps this year of another vocal nationalist, the once-popular mayor of the western city of Osaka, Toru Hashimoto, who alienated mainstream voters with comments that seemed to justify the system of wartime brothels. Analysts say Mr. Abe also learned a similar lesson during his own failed first stint as prime minister, when he lost public support for trying to rewrite textbooks and the Constitution instead of focusing on pocketbook issues.

This time Mr. Abe has sought to avoid appearing too extreme. He has said his government would adhere to official apologies made in the mid-1990s to the victims of Japanese aggression and also the so-called comfort women who were forced to serve in the wartime brothels — a reversal of his earlier stance.

The uproar this week over his finance minister’s comments highlight how emotions over events more than 70 years ago remain potent enough to damage Mr. Abe politically and hurt ties with not only Asian neighbors but also, potentially, the United States, the postwar guarantor of Japan’s military security.

The episode began on Monday when Mr. Aso was discussing with a conservative study group how to achieve the long-held rightist goal of revising the Constitution, which was written by American occupiers after the war. Mr. Aso, who served as prime minister five years ago, said they should look at how Hitler’s Nazi party had changed the Constitution of the prewar Weimar Republic “without anyone noticing.”

“Maybe we should learn from their techniques,” Mr. Aso said.

It was unclear what Mr. Aso meant, since he had earlier in the same talk criticized the Nazis for usurping the Weimar Constitution, which he praised as the most progressive in Europe at the time. Still, the later comment brought an outpouring of criticism for appearing to point to the Nazis as a model, as well as presenting what historians called an incorrect view of what was actually a violent takeover by the Nazis.

The comments created an immediate uproar in Asia, where the South Korean and Chinese news media portrayed them as yet more evidence that Mr. Abe has been leading his nation to the nationalistic right. The comments also drew criticism from some in the United States, a more worrisome development for Mr. Abe, who has vowed to maintain close ties as Japan faces tension with China over disputed islands.

On Tuesday, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights group based in Los Angeles, posted a statement on its Web site demanding that Mr. Aso explain himself.

“What ‘techniques’ from the Nazis’ governance are worth learning — how to stealthily cripple democracy?” the statement asked.

International » World
TOKYO
Published: August 2, 2013 11:23 IST | Updated: August 2, 2013 16:56 IST
Aso refuses to resign over Nazi comment
http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/world/aso-refuses-to-resign-over-nazi-comment/article4981148.ece


Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso is surrounded by reporters at the Ministry in Tokyo on Thursday.　　AP/Kyodo News

Japan’s Finance Minister Taro Aso refused on Friday to resign or apologise over remarks suggesting Japan should follow the Nazi example of how to change the country’s constitution stealthily and without public debate.

Following protests by neighbouring countries and human rights activists, he “retracted” the comments on Thursday but refused to go further.

“I have no intention to step down” as Cabinet minister of lawmaker, Mr. Aso, who is also the deputy prime minister, told reporters. The government also said it is not seeking Mr. Aso’s resignation, which some opposition members have demanded.

Mr. Aso, who is known for intemperate remarks, drew outrage for saying Japan should learn from how the Nazi party stealthily changed Germany’s pre-World War II constitution before anyone realized it. He also suggested that Japanese politicians should make visit Tokyo’s Yasukuni war shrine quietly to avoid controversy. Such visits currently take place amid wide publicity and are a sore point for Southeast Asian nations, who suffered under Japanese occupation during World War II.

Mr. Aso said on Thursday he was misunderstood and only meant to say that loud debate over whether Japan should change its postwar constitution, and other issues is not helpful.

In retracting his comments, he said it was “very unfortunate and regrettable” that his comments were misinterpreted.

On Friday, Mr. Aso said he stands by all his other remarks in the speech made earlier this week in Tokyo to an ultra-conservative audience.

Critics of the ruling Liberal Democrats are uneasy over the party’s proposals for revising the U.S.-inspired post-war constitution, in part to allow a higher profile for Japan’s military.

Japan and Nazi Germany were allies in World War II, when Japan occupied much of Asia and Germany much of Europe, where the racial supremacist Nazis oversaw the killings of an estimated 6 million Jews before the war ended in 1945 with their defeat. Japan’s history of military aggression, which included colonizing the Korean Peninsula before the war, is the reason its current constitution limits the role of the military.

According to a transcript of the speech published by the newspaper Asahi Shimbun, Aso decried the lack of support for revising Japan’s pacifist constitution among older Japanese, saying the Liberal Democrats had held quiet, extensive discussions about its proposals.

“I don’t want to see this done in the midst of an uproar,” Mr. Aso said, according to the transcript. Since revisions of the constitution may raise protests, “doing it quietly, just as in one day the Weimar constitution changed to the Nazi constitution, without anyone realizing it, why don’t we learn from that sort of tactic?”

Government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said that postwar Japan has consistently supported peace and human rights.

“Cabinet ministers should fully understand their role and make sure to avoid misleading remarks,” Mr. Suga said on Friday. He said Mr. Aso has already retracted the Nazi comment and doesn’t have to resign.

On Thursday, Mr. Aso insisted that he was referring to the Nazis “as a bad example of a constitutional revision that was made without national understanding or discussion ...I just don’t want (the revision) to be decided amid a ruckus.”

Opposition leaders condemned Mr. Aso’s remarks, saying they showed a lack of understanding of history and hurt Japan’s national interest. Some demanded Mr. Aso resign.

Mr. Aso’s comments “sounded like praise for Nazi actions and are totally incomprehensible,” said Akihiro Ohata, secretary general of the Democratic Party.

“Minister Aso’s ignorance about historical facts is so obvious,” said Seiji Mataichi, secretary general of the Social Democratic Party. “I also want to remind him that praising the Nazis is considered a crime in EU nations.”

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre, a group dedicated to keeping alive the history of the Holocaust, urged Mr. Aso to “immediately clarify” his remarks.

“What ‘techniques’ from the Nazis’ governance are worth learning? How to stealthily cripple democracy?” Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, said in a statement.

In South Korea, Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Tai-young said Mr. Aso’s remark “will obviously hurt many people.”

In China, which also suffered invasion and occupation by Japanese imperial troops before and during the war, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said the comments showed that “Japan’s neighbours in Asia, and the international community, have to heighten their vigilance over the direction of Japan’s development.”

Mr. Aso urged lawmakers in his speech to visit the shrine at times other than the closely watched anniversary of the end of the war on Aug. 15 to avoid diplomatic flare-ups.

Keywords: Japan Finance Minister Taro Aso, Nazi comment, resignation

Japanese minister Taro Aso refuses to stand down over praise for Nazi militarisation tactics
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/japanese-minister-taro-aso-refuses-to-stand-down-over-praise-for-nazi-militarisation-tactics-8741118.html

Aso said Japan could learn from the way the Nazi party stealthily changed Germany's constitution without anyone realising

Adam Withnall　　Thursday 01 August 2013


Taro Aso has retracted a comment he made this week

The Japanese deputy prime minister Taro Aso has refused to resign or even apologise for comments suggesting Japan follow the example of the Nazis in how to build up more powerful armed forces without causing public outcry.

The outspoken politician, who is also the country’s finance minister, made the remarks in a speech at an ultra-conservative conference in Tokyo earlier this week.

In retracting his comments, he said it was “very unfortunate and regrettable” that they were misinterpreted.

The government said the matter should end there, and Mr Aso said: “I have no intention to step down.”

According to a transcript of the speech published by the newspaper Asahi Shimbun, Aso decried the lack of support for revising Japan's pacifist constitution, wrought after the company occupied large parts of Asia before and during the Second World War.

“I don't want to see this done in the midst of an uproar,” Mr Aso said, according to the transcript. Since revisions of the constitution may raise protests, “doing it quietly, just as in one day the Weimar constitution changed to the Nazi constitution, without anyone realizing it, why don't we learn from that sort of tactic?”

Opposition leaders and representatives from other Asian nations condemned the remarks, and many demanded Mr Aso resign.

The comments “sounded like praise for Nazi actions and are totally incomprehensible,” said Akihiro Ohata, secretary general of the Democratic Party.

In South Korea, foreign ministry spokesman Cho Tai-young said Aso's remark “will obviously hurt many people”.

And a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry said the comments showed that ”Japan's neighbours in Asia, and the international community, have to heighten their vigilance over the direction of Japan's development.“

Mr Aso reportedly also encouraged people to visit the controversial Yasukuni Shrine in secret to avoid diplomatic flare-ups. The shrine commemorates Japan’s 2.3 million war dead, including 14 wartime leaders convicted of war crimes.

Taro Aso on Japanese Constitutional Reform: Learn from the Nazis
By  Jonathan DeHart
August 1, 2013
http://thediplomat.com/the-editor/2013/08/01/taro-aso-on-japanese-constitutional-reform-learn-from-the-nazis/

Taro Aso has done it again. This time, the terminally gaffe-prone deputy prime minister has invoked the ire of a New York City-based Jewish human rights group, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, after suggesting that Japan could learn a thing or two from Nazi Germany when it comes constitutional reform.

“First, mass media started to make noises about Japan’s proposed reforms, and then China and South Korea followed suit,” Aso said in a speech at a right-leaning think tank on Monday. “The German Weimar Constitution changed, without being noticed, to the Nazi German constitution. Why don’t we learn from their tactics?”

In response to the inflammatory remarks, the Simon Wiesenthal Center issued a statement on its website calling on Aso to further clarify his comments. The statement reads: “The only lessons on governance that the world should draw from the Nazi Third Reich is how those in positions of power should not behave.”

On Wednesday reporters asked Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga to address Aso’s remarks. Suga declined to comment, saying, “Deputy Prime Minister Aso should answer that question.”

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party has clearly come out in favor of revising Japan’s post-WWII pacifist constitution. Amid rising regional tensions, so the argument goes, Japan needs a fully functional military. This would mean scrapping Article 9, which renounces war. Alongside expanding military cooperation with the United States, those in favor of doing away with Article 9 have called for Japan’s Self-Defense Forces to be renamed the National Defense Forces.

A report in The Japan Times points out that Aso often makes sarcastic remarks when criticizing someone. Could he have just been cheekily criticizing politicians who are bent on changing the constitution at all costs?

Regardless, the historical context and Japan’s actions during WWII ensured that Aso’s remarks were not well received by Japan’s neighbors.

Following Aso’s remakrs, on Wednesday Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei said, “We demand the Japanese side reflect on its history, fulfill its commitments on historical issues and win the trust of Asian neighbors and the international community through concrete actions.”

South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Tai-young lashed out against Aso’s remarks on Tuesday. “Such remarks definitely hurt many people,” Cho was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency. “It is clear what such comments on the (Nazi) regime mean to people of the time and to those who suffered from Japan’s imperialistic invasion.” Cho went on to call on Tokyo’s leadership to “be prudent in their words and deeds.”

Although this request from Seoul is a reasonable thing to ask, it’s a tall order for Tokyo.

Making gaffes on this scale is par for the course for Aso. This January he made headlines for telling Japan’s elderly to “hurry up and die” to lessen the burden on the nation’s overtaxed medical system. Then there were his comment that it was “lucky” a storm ravaged the smaller cities of Anjo and Okazaki, killing two, instead of ravaging more populous Nagoya.

As far back as 2001, while serving as economy minister, Aso told a group of foreign journalists: “It’s good that foreigners are working in Japan. This may be arbitrary and biased, but a good country is a country where rich Jews would want to live.”

A list of Aso’s biggest gaffes can be seen here.

Jonathan DeHart is assistant editor of The Diplomat.

↑↓「 here.」をクリックした先の麻生の失言まとめ頁ｗ。

Quartz
whoops
The seven—make that eight—most ridiculous statements of Taro Aso, Japan’s debonair gaffe machine
http://qz.com/101893/the-seven-most-ridiculous-statements-of-taro-aso-japans-debonair-gaffe-machine/

By Gwynn Guilford    @sinoceros    August 2, 2013   


Making an Aso of himself. REUTERS/Toru Hanai

Update: In the latest gaffe by Japanese deputy prime minister Taro Aso, he advocated using the Nazi party’s tactics to amend Japan’s pacifist constitution during a speech to an ultra-nationalist group: “I don’t want to see this done in the midst of an uproar … Doing it quietly, just as in one day the Weimar constitution changed to the Nazi constitution, without anyone realizing it, why don’t we learn from that sort of tactic?”

After Jewish groups and Japan’s neighbors expressed outrage at the remarks, Aso did not apologize, but said, “It is very unfortunate and regrettable that my comment regarding the Nazi regime was misinterpreted … I would like to retract the remark about the Nazi regime.”

Aso is renowned for his nationalism, his snappy dress and, above all, for putting his foot in his mouth. Here’s a selection of some other notorious Aso-isms:

On the 2008 financial crisis: “Many people fell prey to the dubious products, or so-called subprime loans. Managers of Japanese banks hardly understood English. That’s why they didn’t buy.”

On the expense of elderly care: “The problem won’t be solved unless you let them hurry up and die.”

On parenting: “I respect the kindergarten director who said that the people who should be disciplined are the mothers rather than the children.”

On economic development: “[Japan should aspire to be] where the richest Jews would want to live.”

On the opposing party: “Nazis.”

On the success of Japanese investors in the Middle East, versus that of Americans: ”The Japanese were trusted because we have never been involved in exploitation there, or been involved in fights or fired machine guns…. It would probably be no good to have blue eyes and blonde hair. Luckily, we Japanese have yellow faces.”

On its colonial legacy in Taiwan: “Thanks to the significant improvement in educational standards and literacy [during colonization], Taiwan is now a country with a very high education level and keeps up with the current era.”

And finally: ”I have made no gaffes in the past half year, even as newspapers said the Aso administration’s…no, the Abe administration’s biggest problem is Taro Aso’s gaffes” (paywall).

This post was initially published on July 9, and will be updated with further ridiculous statements as events warrant.

Japan’s Taro Aso refuses to resign over Nazi remarks
Japan could learn from way Nazis rewrote Weimar constitution, said deputy PM
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/asia-pacific/japan-s-taro-aso-refuses-to-resign-over-nazi-remarks-1.1483291



Japan’s deputy prime ministerTaro Aso’s Nazi comments caused outrage. Photograph: AP Photo/Kyodo News

David McNeill
Sat, Aug 3, 2013, 01:00

Japan’s deputy prime minister Taro Aso has swatted away demands that he quit after suggesting his government should learn from Nazi Germany.

In an apparent attempt to stamp out the diplomatic fires started by his deputy, however, prime minister Shinzo Abe says he will stay away from a controversial shrine to Japan’s war dead this month.

Mr Aso told a conservative audience earlier this week that Japanese politicians should study how the Nazis quietly rewrote the 1919 charter of the Weimer Republic.

“Germany’s Weimar Constitution was changed before anyone noticed,” said Mr Aso, who also serves as finance minister. “Why don’t we learn from that technique.”

Japan’s government wants to revise the 1946 pacifist constitution, banning the maintenance of a conventional military. Written under the post-war US occupation, the constitution has long been unpopular with nationalists.

The government has been frustrated, however, by opposition from the public and criticism from abroad. Coalition partner New Komeito, a Buddhist-backed party, also rejects changing the pacifist clause.


Uproar at home
Mr Aso’s remarks have caused uproar in Japan, with several leading politicians calling for him to resign. The secretary general of the opposition Democratic Party, Akihiro Ohata, called them “totally incomprehensible”.

South Korea and China have seized on the remarks as another sign of Japan’s political drift to the right. “It is clear what such comments on the [Nazi] regime mean to people of the time and to those who suffered from Japan’s imperialistic invasion,” said South Korean foreign ministry spokesman Cho Tai-young this week.

Mr Aso insisted yesterday the remarks were taken out of context and said he was only trying to encourage what he called “calm debate” about constitutional change. “I have no intention to step down,” he said yesterday.

But in a move likely to be seen as a concession to Beijing and Seoul, Mr Abe has decided not to visit Yasukuni Shrine on August 15th, the anniversary of Japan’s surrender in the second World War, according to media reports.

Political visits to Yasukuni, which enshrines Japan’s top war criminals along with about 2.5 million soldiers, invariably trigger accusations across Asia that Tokyo has failed to atone for the war. Mr Abe made a pilgrimage to the shrine last year before he became prime minister and has repeatedly defended the visits. His decision to not go will anger his conservative supporters.

Ties with Beijing and Seoul have been corroded by territorial disputes and differences over interpretations of the war. Mr Abe enraged both countries last month when he dodged a question about whether Japan has launched a war of aggression and colonisation.

This week’s controversy again emphasises the potential for wartime disputes to disrupt or even bring down Mr Abe’s government. The prime minister has insisted he learned his lesson from his first stint as Japan’s leader in 2006/7 when he triggered a bitter international row over so-called comfort women, or wartime sex slaves.

Mr Abe has repeatedly expressed doubt about Japan’s role in rounding up the women.

Sat, Aug 3, 2013, 01:00

First published: Sat, Aug 3, 2013, 01:00

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※原発関連で３冊：

知事抹殺 つくられた福島県汚職事件 佐藤 栄佐久 (著)

原子炉時限爆弾 広瀬 隆 (著)

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