Japan’s Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso suggested on Monday that Tokyo could learn from Nazi Germany’s history about how to quietly adopt reforms to change Japan’s pacifist constitution.

Since World War ii’s end, Japan’s U.S.-imposed constitution has technically limited its military to being a defensive force. To avoid stirring fears of a resurgence in Japanese militarism, Tokyo has relied on Washington for security guarantees during this time. But three factors are now causing Tokyo to shift away from the belief that it needs to quell global fears about a revival of Japan’s militaristic nationalism: Japan’s dwindling faith in America’s security promises, its rising tensions with China and the Koreas, and, similar to today’s Germany, the desire for Japan to be looked upon as a world power in its own right, complete with the ability to defend its national interests militarily. These factors have prompted Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to intensify efforts to revise the constitution to define Japan’s military as a full-fledged force.

A growing number of Japanese embrace these efforts, but media outlets have expressed alarm over Tokyo’s apparent swing toward nationalism and militarism. And the concern has stirred emotions in China and South Korea, which have long said Tokyo hasn’t really come to terms with its militaristic history.

It was that alarm and concern that prompted Deputy Prime Minister Aso this week to say that Japan should have taken a page from the Nazi playbook. “First, mass media started to make noises [about Japan’s proposed reforms] and then China and South Korea followed suit. The German Weimar constitution changed, without being noticed, to the Nazi German constitution. Why don’t we learn from their tactics?” he said in a speech to a conservative think tank.

After seeing the outcry his remarks generated, Aso apologized, saying his comments had “led to a misunderstanding.” But for some, like Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the damage was done. “What ‘techniques’ from the Nazis’ governance are worth learning? How to stealthily cripple democracy?” Cooper asked.

The Nazi Party’s rise to power in the early 1930s was made possible by emergency decrees that bypassed the Weimar constitution. The same was true of Adolf Hitler’s grab of absolute power in 1933. These constitutional circumventions ended up with a Germany-Italy-Japan Axis engulfing humanity in the unprecedented carnage of World War ii.

Perhaps Aso, seeing Germany’s rise to dominance being actively supported by its former enemies—in particular the U.S.—believes the time is ripe for Japan to copy Berlin’s example in the Asian arena.

Way back in 1971, Herbert W. Armstrong, editor in chief of the Trumpet’s forerunner magazine, said, “Japan today has no military establishment. … But we should not lose sight of the fact that Japan has become so powerful economically that it could build a military force of very great power very rapidly.”(Plain Truth, March 1971)

Even before the newest military shifts under Abe and his party began, Japan had been making strong moves in that direction. Today, Japan is home to the fourth-largest navy in the world, and one of the top military arsenals on the globe.

As current trends persist, Japan’s military will continue to expand, and it will look less and less like a “self-defense” force. Although Japan’s expanding military is, at present, largely a response to threats from other Asian countries, Bible prophecy reveals that the militaries of China, Japan and other Eastern powers will set aside their differences and join forces. To understand more, read the fourth chapter of our free booklet Russia and China in Prophecy, called “Japan’s Place in the Future.”