Obama's visit to the Ise shrine along with Japan's prime minister could support his efforts to use Shinto as a vehicle for nationalism.

Shinto is basically an unreformed ancient religion, comparable to ancient Greek paganism, which believes that kamis (powerful spirits such as gods) can be found everywhere in nature.

The last US political leader to support Shinto was Senator Joe McCarthy. He too believed that kamis could be found almost everywhere, including Hollywood and the US State Department ;-}.