In 1971, Maeno attended a meeting of ultra-nationalists in Tokyo's Okura Hotel. Featured at the meeting was "Song of the Race", a composition by right-wing leader, Yoshio Kodama. The lyrics to the song, which the meeting promoted as the new national anthem, called for an overthrow of the government and a restoration of Japan's World War II Imperial policies. Kodama had been associated with gangsters and ultra-nationalism since the war years and had served two years in prison as a Class A war criminal. One of the most powerful figures in post-war Japan, he was largely responsible for the yakuza's resurgence. Though Maeno had no real political connections, he came to admire Kodama as an ultra-nationalist leader.