Modern Japanese theater has undergone several changes over the years. From the first attempts in the 1870s to reform Kabuki, which led to the new form of shin-kabuki, to the creation in the 1960s of the shugekijo undo (small theater movement). One of the individuals who have made an impact in modern Japanese theater is Betsuyaku Minoru. The following essay will discuss Betsuyaku and its contribution to modern theater in Japan. Betsuyaku Minoru was born on April 6, 1937 in the Japanese state of Manchukuo. In 1945 his father, who worked in the Information Office of the General Affairs Agency, died of tuberculosis. After his father's death, Betsuyaku's mother's attempts to remove him and his brothers from Manchuria were futile due to the Soviet invasion and subsequent occupation, Betsuyaku and his family were finally deported in 1946. Betsuyaku's early years they were very unstable and safe. After being deported from the occupied territory, Betsuyaku and his family often moved from Kochi, to Shimizu and then to Nagano City, this was due to the fact that Betsuyaku's mother was struggling to hold down a job to support them all. His mother finally achieved some stability for the family by finding work as a business owner in a small restaurant.61 As soon as Betsuyaku graduated from high school, his family moved to Tokyo where he enrolled in 1958 at Waseda University in the Department of Political Science and Economics . After quickly becoming involved in Waseda University's Free Stage, where he met Suzuki Tadashi, who would later develop a harsh method for training actors. That at that time Betsuyaku was heavily involved in the anti-security treaty and was part of the "Free Stage contingent of the Zengakuren... in March 1961, during the... half of the newspaper... of the feeling and experience must be attempted at a more basic level, the pre- or sub-verbal level of elementary human experience.”81Works Cited Banham, Martin. The Cambridge Guide to World Theater Cambridge [England: Cambridge University Press, 1988. Print.Jaynes, Gerald David. Cyclopedia of African American Society. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications, 2005. Print.Miller, J. Scott. Modern Japanese Literature and Theater from A to Z. Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2010. Print .Ortolani, Benito. Japanese Theater: From Shamanic Ritual to Contemporary Pluralism. Rev. ed. Princeton, NJ: PrincetonUniversity Press, 1995. Print. The Modern Theater of Japan: A Century of Change and Continuity. London: Japan Library, 2002. Print.Zvi, Linda and Angela B. Moorjani.Beckett at 100 Turning Everything. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. Print.