Japan's deputy prime minister stirred controversy this week by appearing to suggest that the government could learn from the way that Nazi Germany changed its constitution. The remarks by Taro Aso, who is also the Japanese finance minister, provoked criticism from Japan's neighbors and a Jewish organization in the United States. Aso, a former prime minister who has slipped up with verbal gaffes in the past, retracted the comments later in the week but refused to apologize for them or resign, saying they had been taken out of context. Amid persistent talk in Japan about revising the country's pacifist post-war constitution, Aso set off the controversy at a seminar Monday, in which he said that discussions over constitutional changes should be carried out calmly.
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At a seminar, the deputy prime minister refers to constitutional change under Hitler
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"Why don't we learn from that method?" he asks
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His comments draw criticism from China, South Korea and a Jewish group
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He retracts the remarks, saying they were taken out of context
@placeholder used a fire that burned down the parliament building as a pretext to suppress the opposition through an emergency clause in the constitution.