One of the most gaffe-prone politicians in the world has stepped in it again.  Japan’s Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso says Tokyo could learn from Nazi Germany when it comes to constitutional reform.

The U.S.-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, which specializes in hunting Nazi war criminals, called on Taro Aso to clarify these comments:

“The German Weimar constitution changed, without being noticed, to the Nazi German constitution. Why don’t we learn from their tactics?”

In response, the Jewish rights group said, “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.”  Japan's neighbors China and South Korea are also concerned.

Aso probably doesn’t hate Jews, as his past gaffes have included saying that he wants to make Japan into a country where “rich Jews” would want to life.  Other Aso greatest hits include wishing old people to “hurry up and die”, saying all rural people “lack a fair degree of common sense”.  As opposed to trust fund kids who grow up to be politicians.

But it’s not all fun and games with Aso, a former Prime Minister himself.  His comments come at a troubling time.  The conservative Aso and his boss Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are pushing to change Japan’s pacifist post-war constitution. 

Abe and Aso want to scrap Article 9, which renounces war; remove an affirmation of human rights and dignity and replace it with a requirement that all Japanese “respect the national flag and national anthem”; and declare the Emperor the official head of state, rather than the “symbol of national unity” the present constitution declares him to be.