Shiki takes up war theme in new musical play.

After a 10-year silence, Shiki Theater Company, Japan's leading musical company, has decided to create a musical based on a war theme. Out of several proposed story lines, Shiki's chairman and stage director Keita Asari opted for an episode focusing on the son of a prime minister who served in World War II and eventually died a mysterious death as a detainee in Siberia. The title of the work, "Ikoku no Oka" (Hills in Foreign Lands), has been taken from a popular song of the postwar era that will also be sung in the musical.

A tragedy of modern history, especially one dealing with the war of a half-century ago, may not sound particularly entertaining as a theme for a …