Is it true that in Japanese, I might've been told that past tense is the same as present tense?

When I was first new to learning Japanese, I was told that past tense was the same as present tense. Or was that German with regular verbs? Example: Der Hunter geschlagt eine Reh f�r Essen or Der Hunter schlagt eine Reh f�r Essen. Well although they don't look the same in Deutsch so could they maybe have been wrong?