"In this 60th anniversary year of the end of the war . . . I thought it was the right time to ask about Japan's current movement toward constitutional revision -- especially the revision of (war-renouncing) Article 9," said 53-year-old Ai Nagai, founder of Nitosha (Two Rabbits) Theater Company, as she explained why she wrote her new play "Utawasetai Otokotachi (Men who Force Singing of the Song)."
She continued, "We learned at school that Japanese citizens are guaranteed popular sovereignty, fundamental human rights and pacifism . . . However, a core facet of being Japanese -- the right to freedom of thought -- is now being so easily forgotten that it makes me feel extremely apprehensive."
The play, which opens Oct. 8 at the Benisan Pit Theater in Ryogoku, takes place at a high school graduation. When new teacher Michiru Naka (Keiko Toda) loses a contact lens before the ceremony, she asks her colleague Haijima (Yoshimasa Kondo) if she can borrow his glasses, but he refuses. Naka is told that Haijima is the "problem teacher" who refused the previous year to sing the "Kimigayo," the traditional national anthem. Headmaster Yoda (Ryosuke Otani) and other teachers have been trying to persuade him to sing it because if he doesn't, everyone will be punished by the Ministry of Education.