For the second time in a week, a newly promoted member of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s increasingly conservative inner circle is denying any memory of endorsing something for the far-right fringe.  This time, it’s a book praising Adolph Hitler’s election strategies.

Abe promoted Sanae Takaichi to Internal Affairs and Communications Minister last week and bragged about how he tied the record number of women in his cabinet.  Shortly after that, Japan’s version of the nazi party splashed photos on its website showing a smiling Takaichi and another newly promoted cabinet member Tomomi Inada posing with the party’s founder, a real scumbag who denies the holocaust, exhales racist and anti-Semitic garbage with every breath, and the usual nazi crap.

This week, a photo appeared on line showing a 1990’s magazine advertisement in which the newly elected “independent” member of the Diet endorses the book “Hitler’s Election Strategy”.  The book praises Hitler for his ability to concentrate power and mold public opinion, conveniently forgetting to mention that whole “plunging the world into a highly destructive war and ordering the Holocaust” thing.  And, yeah, that’s a kawaii manga Hitler caricature in the lower right corner.

The nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center condemned the book and for its promotion of anti-democratic nazi tactics and feeling the pressure, the publisher pulled it from shelves.

“I am 76 years old,” said publisher Eiichi Niimura back in 1994.  “This incident has made me think my judgment has declined.”  Takaichi was in her early 30s at the time.

Takaichi’s spokesperson confirmed it’s her in the magazine advertisement, but claimed she had no recollection of the book or of promoting it.  She also didn’t remember meeting the book’s author, who was a major official in Japan’s ruling LDP party of which she is now a member.  Last week, the spokesman denied that Takaichi knew the leader of local nazi party when she took a photo with him, nor does she share his beliefs.

In Takaichi’s Japan, one apparently can “accidentally” consort with nazi after nazi and never know it.

This is all happening against the backdrop of Japan's neighbors worrying about increasing militarism in Shinzo Abe's government, as well as condemning officials who seek to gloss over atrocities from Japan's World War II past.