As a follow up question to the OP, to what extent did the upper echelons of the Nazi government actually believe in their racial theories? Or was it primarily for the masses?

There is a book by Bella Fromm about her time as a journalist in Berlin upper class circles from 1930 until she left Germany in 1938. She mentions meeting Togo and his wife a few times during Dinner evenings. According to her experiences, the Nazi regime got more and more aggressive over time, but mostly targeting those of Jewish ancestry, other non arians in those circles were rarely harassed if they had any sort of protection or important position. As you said, political reasons influenced the Nazis decisions. She mentions how the police and SA troops raided such dinner parties and threatened people that "they are still protected by orders from above, otherwise he would show them who is ruling the country now". She left Germany and emigrated to America in 1938.

Considering that Japan was an ally of Nazi Germany, how did Adolf Hitler view Japanese culture and people?

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/58th74/considering_that_japan_was_an_ally_of_nazi/ This post ask a similar question might give some insight. But basically Hitler saw the civilizations of Japan and China as more ancient with a rich culutural identity that he did not see as inferior to Aryans. That might help finding an answer

The 1937 German-Japanese co-production The Daughter of the Samurai (Die Tochter des Samurai) or New Earth (Atarashiki Tsuchi) (with two separate directors and two separate titles, the "new earth" being that of Japanese-occupied Manchuria, and the title that gets a lot article hits) provides an example of how problematic concepts of "shared fascism" between the Axis power were and how these concepts got worked out, since its plot, particularly as viewed from the German end, is about this problem. The synopsis: A Japanese man has studied abroad in Germany and wishes to marry a German "Aryan" woman, but her "racial consciousness" makes her convince him to marry the Japanese woman his adoptive parents (and her biological) want him to and his sense of duty to the growing Japanese empire helps with that. There are some definite parallels in that latter motivation, in my opinion, to the late nineteenth century short story [The Dancing Girl](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dancing_Girl_(short_story) by Mori Ōgai and it is almost certainly while researching that for a class that I came across this film. I haven't seen the film, but hope to see it soon (not sure which versions still exist)

The chapter cited in the Wikipedia article actually seems to be pretty good and not misleadingly cited: Michael Baskett, "All Beautiful Fascists?: Axis Film Culture in Imperial Japan," in The Culture of Japanese Fascism, ed. Alan Tansman, (Durham: Duke University Press, 2009), 212-234. Particularly relevant from the chapter are the discussions of the adaptation of anti-Semitic Nazi laws to the Japanese film industry as a way to combat "ideological Jews" (215), the even greater difficulty the Italian-German co-production Condottieri (1936) faced as evidence of ideological differences trumping "East-West differences" in Axis cultural co-productions (224), and Orientalist conceptions of Japanese timelessness on the part of the German director (possibly aided by his background seeming to be entirely in that proto-Nazi and Nazi genre of mountain films) against ideas in Japanese state and society at the time about representing themselves as an entity of pan-Asian modernity. (228)

NB: Although I hope to be an academic specialist in closely related topics in the future, I am not yet that.

From the 1995 paper Nazi Racism Toward the Japanese Ideology vs. Realpolitik Harumi Shidehara Furuya (Cambridge, Mass.), available at: https://www2.uni-hamburg.de/oag/noag/noag1995_2.pdf

1. Hitler's Racism toward the Japanese In order to understand Nazi racism toward the Japanese and the Nazi alliance with Japan, one must first examine the racial beliefs and attitudes toward Japan of Adolf Hitler. In Hitler's book Mein Kampf, in the chapter called „Nations and Race,“ Hitler explained that if mankind were to be divided into three groups – culturefounders, culture-bearers, and culture-destroyers – only the Aryan would qualify for the first category. The Japanese would be culture-bearers for the following reasons: "It is not the case, as some people claim, that Japan adds European techniques to her culture, but European science and techniques are trimmed with Japanese characteristics. But the basis of actual life is no longer the special Japanese culture but it is the enormous scientific and technical work of Europe and America, that is, of Aryan peoples. Based on these achievements alone the East is also able to follow general human progress … But if, starting today, all further Aryan influence upon Japan should stop then the source [of a further development of Japan's present rise in science and technology] would dry out, … its culture would stiffen and fall back into the sleep out of which it was startled seven decades ago by the Aryan wave of culture. … the present Japanese development owes its life to Aryan origin …15"

Thus in Hitler's eyes, the Japanese, as a „race“, were clearly inferior to the Aryans. Presseisen mentions that the above words were expressed in Hitler's early days before his speeches were circumscribed by political expediency. Thus they may come closest to his genuine feelings.16 At the same time, Hitler identified with the Japanese on one essential point: both Germany and Japan, he thought, were victims of the Jewry. In the section called „Japan and Jewry“ in the chapter „German Policy of Alliance After the War,“ Hitler wrote: "The Jew knows only too accurately that… he has it well within his power to undermine European peoples only he would hardly be in a position to subject an Asiatic national State like Japan to this fate … He dreads a Japanese national State in his millennial Jew empire, and therefore wishes its destruction in advance of the founding of his own dictatorship. Therefore, he is now inciting the nations against Japan, as against Germany …17"

Also, according to William Kirby, the Japanese enjoyed a slightly higher standing than the Chinese in Hitler's scale of racial value. Although both the Chinese and Japanese were „lesser races“ in Hitler's eyes, the Chinese were mentioned only at one point in Mein Kampf, „as the racial equal of Negroes.“18 Kirby further mentions: Although the Japanese were said to owe their progress largely to ,Aryan influence,‘ the book [Mein Kampf] showed grudging admiration for the accomplishments of a Japanese state that had remained impervious to the machinations of ,international Jewry‘ and had so completely defeated Russia in 1904–5.19 Kirby's statements as well as Hitler's beliefs as expressed in Mein Kampf and other sources lead one to conclude that Hitler's attitude toward the Japanese encompassed more than just plain racism. While there was no question that Hitler despised the Japanese as „racially inferior,“ he admired the Japanese state as an administrative unit. The irony was that these „racially inferior“ Japanese made and ran the „admirable“ Japanese state of which he was even envious. Various excerpts from Hitler's Secret Conversations attest to Hitler's disdain for the Japanese „race.“ For instance, following the successful Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hitler said, „one must regret it for it's the white race which is the loser.“20 Moreover on May 17, 1942, Hitler stated: „This war is one of life and death, and in order to win the war, we would even ally ourselves with the Devil.“21 In addition, Joseph Goebbels reported on May 8, 1943, that Hitler „sometimes asks himself in a worried sort of way whether the white man is going to be able in the long run to maintain his supremacy over the tremendous reservoir of human beings in the East.“22 Thus, Hitler clearly regarded the Japanese as racially inferior and perceived a threat in their success.

Sources: 15 Adolf HITLER, Mein Kampf. (NY: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1941) 398–399. 16 Ernst L. PRESSEISEN, Germany and Japan: A Study in Totalitarian Diplomacy, 1933–1941. (NY: Howard Fertig, 1969) 4. 17 HITLER, Mein Kampf, 930–931. The editor notes: „The rivalry between Japan and Russia over ,spheres of influence‘ in China indicates to Hitler that Judaism [in Russia] is bent on undermining the healthy structure of the Japanese State. Japan was regarded by White Russians as a possible ally.“ 18 HITLER as cited in William KIRBY, Germany and Republican China. (Stanford: Stanford UP, 1984) 140. 19 KIRBY 140.