But if it is truly autonomous, it should consider such possible moves on their own merits, in keeping with its responsibility to promote the stability of the Japanese economy. He views himself as the heir of the conservative mainstream, voicing caution on moves to increase Japan's military role, while urging the country to find a new frontier with a focus on scientific research. He is impatient with what he sees as inadequate public awareness that Japan is facing its greatest national crisis since the mid-nineteenth century, when the country was forced to open itself to the world. Likening Japan to an overgrown but immature child, he says that the Japanese must wean themselves from their dependence on others and achieve self-initiated reform. Kabuki is well known and respected as a traditional Japanese performing art.
Loyal fans pack domestic performances, and overseas stagings are also well received.
The Occupation authorities saw kabuki as evoking feudalistic sentiments. But Faubion Bowers, a lover of kabuki serving as an aide to General Douglas MacArthur, managed to get the ban overturned. He has followed kabuki's progress ever since, and he returned to Japan this year for what may be his last visit, warmly received by his actor friends. Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, where the spirits of Japan's war dead are enshrined, is a source of controversy in modern Japan, seen by some as an unfortunate symbol of the country's past militaristic excesses, and the propriety of official visits by cabinet members is a subject of ongoing debate. But in the early decades after its construction in the latter part of the nineteenth century, it was not only a place to house the spirits of fallen soldiers but also a site for entertainment.