Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"The Anti-Comintern Pact (...) was an anti-Communist pact concluded between Germany and Japan (later to be joined by other, mainly fascist, governments) on November 25, 1936, and was directed against the Communist International." [Wikipedia] "The signing of the Anti-Comintern pact with Germany in November 1936 was preceded by the growth of military ties between the Imperial Army and Navy and the German military command, and came on the heels of a series of foreign policy coups by Hitler that destroyed the post-World War I settlement in Europe. . . . Henceforth foreign policy would become more expansionist and radical, for the 'imperial way' implied, internationally, that the emperor's 'benevolence' be extended until Japanese overlordship was established throughout Asia. . . . Here, in essence, was that peculiar amalgamation of Shinto, Buddhist, neo-Confucian, and Western monarchist ideals, known as kodo--'the imperial way,' that powered Japanese aggression, and was used by army leaders to browbeat critics and by right-wing thugs to justify their terrorist actions." [Hirohito, p. 308-14]