Dots of isolated incidents reveal rising militarist trend

Viewed in isolation, Japan's decision to allow schools to use Adolf Hitler's book Mein Kampf as teaching material might not be unacceptable.

After all, the German dictator's notorious autobiography could be studied as part of anti-Nazi education and serious retrospection of Japan's own militarist past.

It has ignited worries, however, because there is no sign that is the intention of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his administration. Instead, it looks more like the latest episode in a prolonged sequence of moves in the opposite direction.